Drowning on Dry Land
by Orange4Days
Summary: The past wasn't something Mikey had ever let haunt him. Regardless of what his memories told him, he was a Hamato, through and through. But what happens when, despite his best efforts, his past just won't stay dead and buried. And those awful memories begin to uncover a load of questions no one was prepared to have answered? (TMNT 2K12, HUMAN!AU) Rated T for maturer content.
1. Prologue: How we got to where we are

"Do you have enough money?"

"Yeah."

"And do you have your phone?"

"Yuppers."

"And is it charged?"

"Uh-huh."

"All the way?"

" _Omygosh_ Leo, you act like I've never gone out to get the pizza before!"

Mikey shrugged on Raph's sweatshirt over his head, which was about twice as big on the blond as it was on his older brother, as he walked to the door. April had to wonder why on earth he had chosen to wear _that_ sweatshirt, of all things, to go out to get pizza in. She figured it was simply for the size and comfyness, but she wouldn't put it past Mikey if he simply liked wearing it because of the weird looks he'd get down the street. It's nerve wracking and Gothic red letters spelling the heavy metal band **Slipknot** , a heavy contrast to the baby blue eyed, freckled face kid with a smile that could melt glaciers.

April didn't know whether to laugh out loud or cringe at the clash, but she decided to take the latter and smile back whenever the blond teen looked at her.

April O'Neil was currently parked on her best friend's couch on a Friday evening, in her favorite hoodie and pair of paint splattered sweatpants, waiting to start the _Jurassic Park Movie Night Marathon_ that she had been excited about for nearly two weeks. An event all the brothers had been looking forward too. This being the first night in weeks that all the boys were free from school or sports or saving New York to just hang out and chill like normal teens. Which, if you knew her boys, the Hamatos were everything but.

She smiled from her seat, watching the exchange of the oldest and youngest Hamato as they bickered at the door.

"Yeah well, I'm just making sure you'll be all right. Last time, you came home two hours late with only half of the-by-then cold pizzas and somehow covered in motor oil and flour," the moment Mikey opened his mouth to defend himself, Leo's hand was already on the move to close it. "Uh-uhh. Save it. I didn't want to hear it then and I don't want to hear it now."

Mikey let out a laugh as he shook Leo's hand away. "You're right. That's too epic a story for a worry wort like you. Maybe when you're older."

Leo ignored him like a seasoned pro as he handed Mikey a folded up umbrella. "You sure you'll be alright? Raph can always give you a lift there."

A grunt brought April's attention to the red head seated at the kitchen counter. A sour expression had been glued to Raph's face for the past hour and a half as he stared at the laptop screen, an unfinished English paper drawing out every bit of patience Raph had left for the world. She was sure that Raph would be more than happy with _any_ excuse for a chance to break away from the impending 25% of his grade, but from what Donnie had explained to her, Raph had put off the paper long enough. And the self appointed " _warden_ ',( _aka Leo_ ) was putting him on major lock down until he at _least_ finished the rough draft. And if Raph wanted to be part of the _JPMNM_ , then he couldn't afford to spare any extra attention on anything, _or anyone_ , else.

However, April found out pretty quickly that when it came to Mikey, _all_ rules were thrown out the window for the Hamatos.

Mikey winked at Leo before sliding the umbrella into his sweatshirt pocket and putting his skateboard under his arm. "And rob me of the chance to wear Raph's super comfy, death metal sweatshirt? I think not, Leo."

He opened the back door, and April snug herself deeper into the couch as the cold stormy wind escaped into the house. "My dude, I'll be _fine_ , don't worry. No epic adventures this time, I'm on a deadline," April noticed a wink her way and she smiled as she waved him goodbye. "Save a good spot for me sis! And make sure Raphie finishes his hw so we can get this party started!"

He saluted the house before jumping down the slippery steps and out of Aprils sight. Leo watched him from the door way, shouting at him like the _quote_ - _un_ - _quote_ 'mother hen' he was.

"Make sure to look both ways before crossing the street! And if the rain worsens, make sure to call us and we'll come pick you up! And keep your hood- he's gone," April laughed as Leo sighed and closed the door, shutting out the cold November air and allowing the house to warm up again. "I swear that kid'll be the death of me one of these days."

"Ahh, you worry too much. He'll be fine. He knows what's at stake if he comes home late," April noticed Donnie come up the stares from the garage, carrying some scrappy looking piece of metal April knew to be Donnie's newest invention. "There will be a mutiny Raph has to eat cold pizza again. And he wouldn't miss the chance for a movie marathon. Not when we haven't done one in so long."

"I know, Dee. But this is Mikey we're talking about. I'm still gonna worry regardless, if that's ok with you?" Leo answered, walking over to the kitchen and bringing down a blue mug from the cupboard. "And I'm gonna make some tea. Anyone want some?"

"Me please!" April shot her hand up, and smiled when Leo brought down the yellow mug they had gotten her for Christmas a few years back.

"I'm good. Thanks though," Donnie called absentmindedly as he sat down on the floor between the couch April was sitting on and the coffee table. He leaned his back against the couch cushion and put the gadget on the glass table, spreading out a few gears and tools from his pockets and began working again. Raph let out another grunt that, to April, sounded exactly like the first, but Leo seemed to understand it as a ' _no_ ' because he closed the cupboard door and took his and April's mugs to where their kettle was.

"Watcha fidgeting with, genius?" April maneuvered herself on the couch so that she was now laying on her stomach, her head right next to Donnie's as he worked. He gave her a side smile before he continued tinkering.

"Nothing special. It's still in the works right now, but I'm hoping to make an automatic, wireless phone charger," Donnie started, pointing a thumb back towards the kitchen where two of the Hamoto's still resided. "We loose phone charger's like you wouldn't believe-."

"Not my fault," Raph called up from his paper.

"-so what this'll do is charge a phone by simply being in the same room. Any phone within a 30 foot radius, doesn't matter how many and as long as it can connect to the internet, can be charged. No connecting to a wire or anything. The phone can stay in your pocket, for all it's worth. This will reduce the phone to charger ratio and reduce the amount of fights we seem to get in whenever we can't find a charger," Donnie explained, tinkering away as he worked, only looking at April once to give her a cheeky smile. "Or when we find a charger and it's been broken."

" _Again_ , not my fault."

April rose an eyebrow, "That's really great Donnie, but how're you going to stop _this_ charger from getting lost or broken?"

Donnie stopped his hands for only a second, scrunching up his face like he was deep in thought, before shrugging and continuing with his work. "Like I said, April. It's a work in progress."

"Here you go April. One cup of hot peach, green tea with extra lemon and honey," April sat up and took the warm mug from Leo's outstretched hand. He sat himself down at the other side of the couch with a mug of his own, handing a wash rag over to Donnie. "Here gear head. Don't wipe your grease stains on your shirt. You already got some on your face."

At that, Donnie frantically wiped his face with his free hand, but April noticed it only made the grease spot bigger. She smothered a chuckle as Leo simply sighed, putting down his mug before grabbing the rag from Donnie's hand and wiping his little brother's cheek himself.

Leave it to Leo, April would have been happy with any cup of tea, but Leo made her her favorite and knew exactly how to make it perfect. April let the warmth of the cup sink into her hands before taking a slow sip. Flavor and heat exploded in her mouth and made it's way into her system, filling her with a relaxing and comfortable state of mind, and warming her from the inside out. She sighed loudly, taking another eager sip. _Absolutely_ _perfect_. "Thanks Leo."

Leo nodded a ' _you're_ _welcome_ ' and took his own sip from his mug. "So, what do we do while we wait for Mikey to bring back food?"

"We could watch some T.V," April offered, but Leo quickly shook his head.

"Not with Raph working on his paper. I'd send him out of the room, but I'm pretty sure he'll just end up slacking off if I don't keep an eye on him," Leo responded in a tone that only seemed like he was half joking. April waited for an interjection from Raph, but it never came. The second oldest was too busy focusing on the screen of his computer to bother listening in. _This paper must have been pretty important_ , April thought, _if it made Raph able to tune out Leo._ "And training is out of the question too, since Sensei locked up the dojo to go to the karate convention in DC."

"Was that this week?" April asked, surprised she let it slip her mind.

"Yeah," Donnie replied absentmindedly, still tinkering with his invention. "He left early this morning. He originally was just going to go to watch some of his older students compete, but since he's a regular and a pretty popular instructor, they asked him to judge this year. So he's going to stay there till Monday morning. And it's just always been a long standing rule that when Sensei is out of the house, dojo is off limits."

"Why is that?" April asked, leaning forward, knowing there was a story behind every and any rule in the Hamato house.

"Why do you think? It's the same reason it always is. Raph and Mikey were fooling around in there when we were younger and Mikey ended up getting hur-"

"Ok _FIRST_ of all, Mikey was the only one fooling around in there, I was at soccer practice," Raph yelled out angrily, his concentration obviously broke but he didn't tear his eyes away from his essay.

"Yeah, but you were the one who gave him the idea to go in there and practically slice his finger off in the first place," Leo called back calmly, taking a sip of his tea.

"I had nothing to do with that and you know it, ya _wing nut_. None of that was any of my fault!"

"Ok, someone explain to me what happened because I'm still lost and now really invested in the story," April asked, and Donnie stopped his work to answer her.

"So when we were little, I think Mikey must have been, what, seven, Leo? Anyway, Sensei had just introduced us to actual weapons, like, a _real_ Katana blade and a pair of twin Sais. Raph and Leo were pretty used to the wooden ones so Sensei decided to see if they were ready to try practicing with the real thing during training," Donnie whistled in reminisce. "And let me tell you, for a couple of elementary school boys, that was the _coolest_ thing. I remember Mikey and I being _so_ jealous of Leo and Raph, but Sensei said we were still too young to handle actual weapons. He was right of course, but that didn't mean were weren't envious of them."

"I remember Mikey bugging the heck out of us during all hours of the day to let him have a go with our weapons," Leo said, continuing the story. "He'd ask us constantly. And with a seven year old Mikey, that carries some weight. I can't give you a number of how many times I've woken up and nearly falling out of bed because a pair of bright blue eyes were _this_ close from your face."

Leo put up his hand practically on the tip of his nose for emphasis and April had to smuggle a laugh. "Anyway, we'd always told him no, but that didn't stop Mikey in the slightest. Finally, Raph snapped. He yelled at him, saying that Mikey was just too young and inexperienced to be able to handle something as complicated as his Sai, and that he should just stick to his, how did he phrase it, ' _baby sticks on strings_ '?"

"If it's Raph, he probably used a harsher phrase than that," Donnie replied and was immediately met with a pencil thrown at the back of his head from the kitchen counter.

" _The point is,_ " Raph interrupted gruffly, finishing the story. "Mikey took it as a challenge, like he usually does, and snuck into the dojo when Sensei was driving me to soccer practice. Leo was _supposed_ to be watching him, but _whatever_ , Mikey got into the weapon storage shelf and started messing around with my Sais. No surprise, he ended up cutting himself."

"Man that was _so_ scary," Leo stated, more to himself than out loud, staring at the ceiling as if the memory were as fresh as what he had for breakfast earlier that morning.

"I had no idea what to do, there was just so much blood and Mikey wouldn't stop crying. Thankfully, Sensei was only gone for a few minutes and the cut wasn't that deep, so I didn't have to call 911. But Mikey ended up having to have a few stitches on his middle finger and they had to wrap it up with quite a bit of gauze," Leo said, standing up from the couch and walking over to a near by book shelf. "Mikey thought it was hilarious, since it looked like he was flipping the bird whenever he put his hand up. I think we have a picture of it somewhere in one of our photo albums."

"Ever since then, to get back to the topic, Sensei has banned us from being alone in the dojo without him in the house," Donnie finished off, wiping his hands on the dish rag Leo had gotten for him.

"Even now? When you guys are teenagers and practically masters at wielding your weapons?" April asked.

" _Especially_ now that were teenagers," Donnie answered, a small smile growing on his lips. "Or at least, I'm sure that's what Sensei thinks."

"Found it."

Both Donnie and April's heads turned and followed Leo as the raven haired boy sat back down on the couch, opening up the thick and heavy book on his lap. April leaned in close to get a better view of the picture Leo had the book open to.

Sure enough, a seven year old Mikey was grinning up at her as he held up a heavily bandaged finger. Just seeing the look of utter glee on the the kid's face made April smile back, despite herself. She took the book from Leo's lap to better see the picture as the oldest continued talking.

"It's not like Mikey ever listened though. I can remember a few times Mikey has gotten in trouble for breaking into the weapons safe to play around with some throwing stars," Leo said, and Donnie let out a soft chuckle as he threw Raph's pencil back at him.

"Yeah, he usually only did it though if he was following _Captain Rule Breaker_ over there. Ever since he was little, he's only ever gotten in trouble when Raph's involved."

Raph caught the pencil before it hit his face, never taking his scolding eyes off his English paper. "You act like I invited him to tag along. And don't you two even _dare_ try to act like you didn't do the same. If memory serves me right, you two got into trouble for it just as much as Mikey and I did," with eyes still glued to the screen, he gave his brothers a knowing grin, which sent them into a full blown, heated debate about who got yelled at by sensei more and who was able to get away with it. Typical sibling fight of _who-is-the-favorite_.

April couldn't stop herself from smiling at their conversation as she flipped through the old photo book in her hands. No surprise, the book was filled to the brim with picture after picture of the boys growing up and April found herself in complete awe as she watched the boy's life grow before her eyes. Pictures of homemade haircuts and lost teeth and cake covered birthday party misadventures filled the pages and every picture told a different story. Obviously, they were all filled with love and smiles and it didn't matter if the pictures were of building snowman in the middle of winter or a haphazard shot of a young Raph chasing an even younger Mikey around the house with a face covered in black marker doodles; April could feel the warmth from every photo and she could only imagine that the person behind the camera was smiling just as hard as she was.

She wasn't even surprised when she found a few pictures of herself and Casey in some of the more recently taken photos, and grinned as the memories re-flooded her memory. As she reached the end of the book, April noted that she didn't see the beginning, only starting from where Leo had opened it up to, and having a sudden urge to see the boy's as wee babies filled her with a new excitement as she speedily flipped to the first page.

A quick reality check caught her by surprise, however, when she found the first picture to be of the Hamato boy's first Christmas. None of them were babies when the picture was taken. A neatly printed text next to the picture told April exactly how old they were when the picture was taken and she had to reprehend herself for forgetting and getting her hopes up.

 _Ahhh that's right. The boys were adopted by Master Yoshi when they were still kids_ , April thought as she read the passage next to the photo.

 _ **Leonardo(9), Raphael(8), Donatello(7), Michelangelo(6) and Yoshi Hamato's first Christmas after adoption on Sept. 27th.**_

April's smile weakened, but only for a second as she drank in the comfort of the photo. They were all standing in front of a decorated Christmas tree, and judging from the sleepy expressions and rueful bedheads, April could only imagine that they had just woken up and were about to open presents before Master Yoshi decided to take a quick picture. Each of them, the redheaded girl noted, wearing their respected ninja colors in the form of Christmas sweaters. Mikey, smiling as big as his cheeks would let him, in a bright, orange one that was way too big for him, Donnie, looking like he was about to fall asleep standing up, in a purple one with a reindeer on it, Raph, who looked less than happy at the idea of wearing matching sweaters, was trying to hide the happy elf that was stitched on his red one, and Leo standing tall and proud at Sensei's side in a navy blue, while their new father, smiled in his matching Maroon sweater.

It wasn't a secret. April had known they were adopted practically the entire time she's known them. But it was something that never seemed to stay in her mind. It wasn't an important factor. The boys never talked about it. Never acted like they were adopted. It was easy to forget when they act like they've known each other their whole lives. When they act like how any normal siblings would act.

It should be obvious. None of the brothers looked like each other or like their Asian father, but it's easily overlooked when you see them interact. I guess when you've been around someone for long enough, your personality just sort of morphs to compliment the ones around you. The Hamato boys just fit right together, no doubt about it. It didn't matter if none of them shared the same blood.

The Hamato boy's were brothers. That's all there was too it. And if you saw them, you wouldn't think twice about whether they were related to each other or not.

They just _were_. And they always would be.

April knew this. But actually seeing the evidence in front of her eyes stirred up some questions she never thought to ask. She was curious. She'd never thought of asking in all her four years of knowing the boys. She never thought to wonder where they came from or who they were before they were _the_ Hamato brothers or even how they came together in the first place.

They were brothers. But that wasn't always the case.

"And _then_ there was the time you locked me in the a bathroom stall and made me think you guys abandoned me!"

"Geez Dee, how many times do I have to apologize for that for you to let it go already! I was ten!"

" **YOU DID IT FOUR TIMES!** "

"Well whose fault was that? If you hadn't kept falling for it, it wouldn't have happened more than twice. Probably."

"I'll _probably,_ you."

"Hey, Leo?" April asked.

"Yeah?" Leo laughed, not taking his attention away from his brothers amusing conversation but turning his eyes on her for just a split second so that she knew he was listening.

"I was just wondering, what was life like before you guys met?" April asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" He smiled, not taking his eyes away from the action.

April had no right to ask. It wasn't her business. On the one hand, it could be that it was just something they never thought to talk about and was simply that that they were all adopted from the same foster care system or whatever. On the other hand, it could be that they didn't want to talk about it, because it was too painful or heartbreaking and they would end up getting mad at April for bringing it up. The stakes were high, and in all honesty, she was about 90 percent sure she shouldn't ask.

But the other 10 percent of her wanted to know. _Needed_ to know. The least she _could_ do was ask.

So that side won.

April took a deep breath.

"I mean, before you all were adopted by Master Yoshi. How did you guys meet up? What was your life like before all this?"

Leo's smile vanished almost instantly as he turned his head towards April, his solid blue eyes piercing her with a sort of hidden intensity that April wasn't used to receiving and she immediately wished she hadn't said anything.

Her mouth, apparently, _didn't_ get that memo.

"I mean, if it's a sensitive subject, you absolutely _DO NOT_ have to tell me! I didn't mean anything by it, I was just curious when I noticed you didn't have any baby pictures in your photo album and you guys have never talked about it before and I realize I'm overstepping my boundaries and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to if it's too personal, I just-."

"Woah, woah, hey, it's ok Ape. It's fine. You're not overstepping any boundaries," and the awful thing was, April believed him as he gave her a warm smile. He put up his hands reassuringly as a means to calm her down as he stared at her. "I just- wasn't really expecting that."

He turned himself back to facing her on the couch, forgetting his brothers conversation as he rubbed the back of his head, giving her his full attention. "It's not like there's anything wrong, it's just, well, it doesn't really come up in conversation very often, so we just don't talk about it," he shrugged, noticing the photo album in Aprils lap opened to the old Christmas photo. "It almost seems like a different world, it was so long ago. We were just kids."

"You don't have to answer it. I was just curious, but really, it's fine. We don't have to get into it," panic started to boil in the pit of her stomach. This _really_ wasn't her place to ask, but Leo just shook his head, giving her another warm smile as he picked his tea mug back up and taking a sip.

"You act like you've stepped on a land mine. April, it's _fine_. It's not like it's a taboo subject or anything. I'm surprised you didn't ask sooner," he paused, taking the photo album out of Aprils lap and flipping the page to a picture with all four of the boys lined up in matching white karate-gi. He smiled, tracing his fingers over the worn photograph.

"I was an orphan," he answered finally. His gentle smile never leaving his face. "Grew up in an orphanage, way up in the Bronx. It's not there anymore. It got torn down about ten years ago. It was a really old establishment, built way back in like, the early 1900's."

April wasn't expecting the explanation to start so soon, thinking she'd have to venture a little further to get the info out of him, but she didn't skip the chance to hop on the story train and ride along with Leo. "What happened to your biological parents?" April asked quietly, making sure that each word was spoken carefully in fear of breaking the rapport the two were creating.

"Don't know. Never met them. And don't really care too, if I'm being perfectly honest. I was found abandoned under a nearby park bench when I was just a couple of weeks old," Leo shrugged simply, turning the page to more photos. "One of the adults volunteering at the orphanage found me. They took me in. Apparently, the movie _Titanic_ had just came out, and one of the nurses living there was obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio. Hence where I got my name."

He laughed good humorously, but April couldn't find it in her to join him. He said it so simply, that it seemed like he was shrugging it off like it was nothing. But this was Leo. And April knew better.

Leo never treated anything so apathetically. Every sentence carried it's own valued weight, and was treated respectively. And nothing he explained was ever said in anger or hatred or hurt. He explained his past like a seasoned veteran, having accepting the truth long ago and being at peace with it.

April respected that, she really did, but she could still feel her heart grow heavy. Even though she had asked, she could have never expected _that_ to be a possible answer. Could never have expected a guy like Leo, brave, kind, loving Leo, to have a past like that. It broke her heart.

"Fearless, what the _hell_ did you do to April?"

April immediately blinked back her watery eyes to notice two concerned faces staring at her from the kitchen counter. She _wasn't_ going to cry, she resolved, that wouldn't have been fair to Leo. But she couldn't help it if the tears threatened to come falling down with or without her consent. How her heart cringed at the thought of someone abandoning a kid all alone in some park.

The thought of someone abandoning Leo. _Her_ Leo. The Leo who would stay up late with you on the phone if you had a nightmare. The Leo who'd help you practice martial arts long into the night even when he could be doing about a hundred other things that were more worth his time. The Leo who everyone looked up to. The perfect role model. The humble hero. The over protective and loving big brother. That was her Leo.

Not a Leo who was abandoned by people who were supposed to love him. That just wasn't right.

"Wait, he didn't do anything! I'm fine! I'm really fine, just, give me a second!" April said, knowing no tears had fallen down her cheeks but rubbing her shirt sleeve across her eyes just to make sure. Leo, wide eyed at the sudden action, put a hand on her knee.

"April? Hey, it's ok. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have explained it so bluntly. It's really ok!"

"No, no, no. You didn't do anything wrong Leo!" April said quickly before returning her gaze to the other two concerned faces. " _I_ was the one who asked Leo about your guy's past. Or, well, Leo's past. It was my fault."

"Is that what you two were talking about?" Donnie asked, leaving his spot next to Raph from when he had gotten up to argue to plop back down in front of the couch. "Why are you guys talking about stuff like that?"

Leo looked at April as if ready to explain for her but she shook her head. She looked from Donnie, to Leo, to the photo album in Leo's lap and then back to Donnie. She took the photo album back and placed it back on her own lap. She flipped back open to the first page and gently ran her fingers over the aged writing next to the Christmas photo before answering.

"You guys don't have any baby pictures," she started, figuring that was the best place to start. "I've known you guys for a good portion of my life, almost like I've known you for the entirety of it. And yet, somehow, I still feel like I hardly know you guys at all. I don't know anything about your past or where you come from or how you're all even here together. You guys are my best friends. You've been with me through thick and thin. You guys know basically everything there is to know about me. About my past. How my mom died. Those were dark times for me. But you guys were there to help me through it."

She looked up from the picture, meeting all of there eyes. They waited patiently for her to finish, listening to her with a sort of ready patience that April wasn't used to receiving from the brothers at the same time. She was silently grateful for it somewhere in the back of her mind. "So I want to know more about you guys. Not because you guys need to or that I'm really deserving of it. But so that in case you guys need help with anything, I can be there for you, just like you guys were there for me."

There was a long, and over embarrassingly long pause, but it was Raph's low chuckle that finally broke the tension. "Jeezus O'Neil, I would have accepted a simple, ' _I'm curious_ '. Nothing that deep."

April could feel her cheeks grow warm as the laughter grew between the boys, but it was all soft and warm and wasn't anything that would make April feel uncomfortable being around. Leo ran his fingers through his dark bangs, pulling them to the side of his head as he rested his arm on the top of the couch frame and stared at April with kind blue eyes.

"April, I told you it was fine. It's not a huge deal for us to tell you. But you're wrong about one thing," he said cooly, a smile playing on his lips. "You actually do know us, almost everything about us, probably better than anyone else. At least, you know the important stuff. The stuff that matters. Our past's are.. well... anything _but_ that. They're not really important. But you _are_ our best friend. Mikey would argue that you're practically our sister, and no one would fight back on it. So if you want to know who we were before we were Hamato's, you're probably the best person to tell it too, in all honesty."

"Besides," Donnie answered, resting his head on his arms as they laid on the top of the couch cushions. "Who are we to deny you simple information that happened years ago. We might as well get it out of the way now so we don't have to bring it up again in the future."

"Won't we have to tell Casey eventually?" Raph asked.

Donnie just rolled his eyes. "Personally, I don't mind keeping hockey mask in the dark."

"Are you sure you guys are ok with this? We don't have to, you know," April ask, and she was met with another one of Leo's smiles and nods.

"Ask away, Ape. Nothing is off limits."

April gave a small smile back. Looking at the picture in her lap one more time before bringing her head up and meeting Leo and Donnie's gaze. Raph had returned to typing on his laptop, but his posture told her that we was every bit a part of the conversation as the rest of them were. "So Leo, you lived in an orphanage most of your childhood?"

"That's right. Up until I was about eight." Leo answered.

"Why is that? Was that when Master Yoshi adopted you?"

"Nah," Leo shook his head nonchalantly. "That's when I met Raph."

"Raph?" April asked, confused. "You mean, at the orphanage?"

Leo ran his fingers through his hair again, shaking his head once more before responding. "Not technically, no. See, I was playing by myself out in the courtyard behind the orphanage dorms. I was the only one out there because it had rained the night before and none of the adults wanted the younger kids to get dirty from the mud. I guess they trusted me enough to be on my own for an hour," Leo shrugged, and Donnie had to smuggle a chuckle under his breath.

"I'll say. The adults running the orphanage would have let you drive the bus if you had asked nicely enough. You were perfect even then."

"I wasn't perfect. I just knew how to act well-behaved and keep my mouth shut and my hands in my pockets. Which is something you wouldn't understand, Mister _-I-took-apart-the-microwave-when-I-was-six-years-old-cause-I-wanted-to-know-how-heat-waves-popped-popcorn,_ " Leo replied curtly, but with every bit of older brother fondness as he ruffled Donnie's hair roughly. "Anyway, I was back there by myself. The courtyard was fairly large and had this tall metal fence surrounding it, there to either keep us kids in or others out. Who knew? But there was a little space in the far corner that was hidden by one of the tool sheds, where part of the fence was broken. It was just big enough for me to crawl through, so I used it whenever I could get the chance," Leo said.

He paused, tapping his fingers on the side of his head in deep thought before continuing. "I never liked that place. I'd use the hole any chance I could for an escape out of there, even for just ten minutes. It wasn't like the people working there weren't decent enough, or even that it was like little orphan Annie where we didn't get enough clothes or food. But the place wasn't the best living conditions. The building was old and starting to fall apart. And it was always too crowded and loud. And despite living with twenty other boys in a room, it always seemed so... lonely."

A weird quietness fell upon the group, Raph and Donnie listening just as intently as April was, even if they already knew the story. "It was suffocating. The loneliness. It was easy to go unnoticed in an environment like that. It never really seemed like I belonged there. No one really needed me and I didn't really need to be around. I didn't belong to anyone or anything. So I had planned to run away. To get out of that place once and for all. So I packed up whatever I could, which wasn't anything more than a few scraps of food and a couple of bucks I had managed to scavenge, and as soon as I was alone, I snuck out through the hole and was about to be free of that awful place. But..."

"But? But what? What happened?" April asked excitedly, too absorbed in the story to worry about interrupting him.

"Raph happened," Leo shrugged, motioning towards Raph with his eyes. "I met him on the other side of the fence. He was really seriously injured and I didn't have anything with me to help him, so I ended up having to go back and grab more supplies to help him, closing my window of opportunity to escape."

"You know, I never _asked_ you to help," Raph muttered under his breath, but it lacked every ounce of bravado that he usually defended himself with.

"I guess I was just always meant to be a big brother. I couldn't just leave you there. Besides, you ended up eating all the food I had packed so I had no choice but to go back," Leo smiled warmly, but April found herself frowning with confusion.

"Wait, wait, wait. What happened to Raph? Why was he injured? What was his story?" April waved her hands enthusiastically. Leo turned his gaze towards Raph, but the red head simply shrugged as he continued working on his essay, never meeting his older brothers stare.

"Not really much to tell," Raph said, green eyes turning fierce and sharp as he spoke. "Typical story of a dad who was an abusive alcoholic and a mom who was a drug addict that was never home. The bastard had one too many beers and was in another one of his rages 'cause of mom, and like usual, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was finally sick of it all. So I got the hell out of there. But not without a few bruises and cuts to take with me as a cruel reminder."

Leo's and Donnie's face grew hard and cold as Raph spoke, and it didn't take a mind reader to tell what they were thinking.

"Raph looked like he'd been run over by a semi truck. His nose was bleeding really bad and he could hardly see out of his right eye. Not to mention he could barely walk with all those bruises on his rib cage," Leo spat out coldly, not hiding the pure hate in his voice.

Raph shrugged again, but this time, April could notice the tension. "Yeah, he was a real piece of work, but again, the important part was that I got outta there. And I guess if you think of it, if the old man hadn't beat me black and blue that day, then we probably wouldn't be here today," Raph said, turning his head towards April only to notice her brow furrow further in confusion.

"I accidentally bumped into Raph lying in the alley way, and I guess we sorta just grew on each other. I stayed in the orphanage for another two weeks so that I could continue to sneak out food and clothes and medicine to him while he stayed in, now that I think of it, where _did_ you stay Raph?" Leo asked.

"In the sewer system, next to the harbor, remember? We stayed there for awhile before he moved on to Manhattan," Raph replied, turning back to his laptop.

"Wait, you lived in a _sewer_?" April asked, scrunching up her nose, but her question went unanswered as Leo continued the story.

"Ahh, that's right, I remember. Anyway, I'm glad I did stay an extra two weeks at the orphanage, cause that's how I meant this little genius," Leo answered, ruffling Donnie's hair once more before the brunette smirked and swatted him away, turning towards April ready to tell his part of the story.

"I was six when I came to the orphanage. My biological parents had died in a car accident the year before. For awhile I was in the foster care system, but well, I never really stayed with any _one_ family for too long. I was kind of a... well... I was a bit of a 'troubled kid'," Donnie chuckled nervously, but Leo simply swatted him playfully on the back of the head.

"You were _not_ a 'troubled kid'. You were a brilliant kid who kept getting stuck with bad people who didn't appreciate your potential or worth," Leo affirmed proudly. Donnie rubbed the back of his head, shrugging.

"You take apart one to many coffee makers and school printers and suddenly your marked as the worlds most dangerous six year old vandalist," Donnie joked, turning the page of the photo album on April's lap to a picture of a young Donnie and Mikey building a couch fort. Mikey was wearing a pair of underpants on his head. "Some families were better than others, but none really liked how... well, I guess how curious I was. Or knew how to deal with me. So after a few weeks of non stop "but why's" and broken appliances, they'd send me back. If you can imagine, I was a bit of a handful back then."

"Back then? You're _still_ a handful," Raph scoffed, typing something quickly onto his laptop.

"And thank God you were. Cause then you would have never ended up at the orphanage," Leo smiled, turning back towards April and turning another page on the photo album. A few pictures of the boys learning how to ride bikes were clumped together, each Hamato wearing a different form of excitement and panic on their faces.

"Despite what they try to advertise on t.v now a days, an orphanage is an orphanage. It would never be a home," Leo said, looking fondly at the pictures. "At least, not for people like us."

Raph's scoff from the kitchen counter caught April's attention as he rubbed his nose. "Ha! Orphanages aren't home for anyone. More like dog pounds for society's 'mutts'. Kids are lined up like dogs, waiting to get taken home by that ' _perfect family_ '. And if you're not that _beautiful_ little blond haired, blue eyed puppy, then you're shit outta luck till you're too old for the system."

Leo frowned at Raph's harsh comment, but if he thought that what Raph had said was wrong, he didn't verbally say it. "Alright, I won't lie, there was a bit of a biased. And yeah, if you got to be around your early teens, it was just sorta an unspoken fact that you weren't going to get adopted. I'm sure things have changed now, but at least, that's how it was going to look for Donnie and I."

"I apparently already had a bad reputation thanks to the foster system, so the orphanage didn't really have high hopes for me," Donnie said nonchalantly, turning another page of the photo album. "And so they partnered me up with the kid who apparently no one had any hope of being adopted, having more adoption interviews in a year then there were actual adoptions."

"I guess they thought the misfits should stay together," Leo commented, laughing at a particular image of him and Mikey making a makeshift cake for father's day. A little Leo with a cake-batter splattered cheek and tongue sticking out in a focused frown, seemed completely dedicated to sticking to the recipe as he glared at the cook book in one hand and a whisk stirring madly in the other. Little Mikey, with more of the batter on himself than in the bowl, apparently had a different agenda and, with a mischievous yet determined grin, was half way though pouring a bag of puff Cheetos into the bowl as the snapshot was taken.

"Fine by me," Donnie replied, sharing the same fond smile Leo did as he looked at the picture, probably remembering the incident as being the amateur photographer. "To be honest, if it weren't for you, and eventually Raph, I'd probably be in a whole heck-of-a lot worse situation, probably on the streets by myself or still in some awful orphanage somewhere. You guys were the only ones who didn't get tired of my questions or try to get rid of me."

"Oh, trust me, _I_ got tired of your questions about five minutes after meeting ya," Raph muttered. "And it's kinda hard to get rid of a kid that had connected himself to your hip. And we _tried_. Leo could barely go to the bathroom by himself without you following him like a little lost duck. We had no choice but to take you along with us."

Upon seeing Donnie's disgruntled face, Leo quickly followed up with a smile and a, "He's joking, Dee."

"We really _did_ get tired of your constant freaking questions, though," Raph replied.

"But not tired of _you_ ," Leo added, roughly running his hand through Donnie's hair. "You were stuck with us and vise versa the first day I met you, I wasn't about to leave a brilliant kid like you behind in a place like... like _that_."

Leo shook his head, as if trying to forget a certain memory as he turned his attention back towards April, who was still patiently waiting for the rest of the story. "It took a lot of planning, and a lot of messing up the adoption records on Donnie's part, in order for us to safely leave that place without any consequences or anyone looking for us. I think it was early November when we moved into Manhattan. It was just the three of us, living in an abandoned apartment complex next to the river for a couple weeks until we met Mikey. Then it wasn't until another six months that we happened to run into Sensei. And then the rest is kind of history."

"The adoption process was probably the most difficult part, Raph's probably the hardest because technically he was a runaway that was still _legally_ under the " _care_ " of his biological parents. But Sensei pushed for it, fought for it, _for us_ , and another half a year later, we're all sitting under our very first Christmas tree as the Hamatos," Donnie said, flipping back to the very first picture of all the boys together, the picture that had brought upon this conversation in the first place.

"And here we are today," Leo gave a half smile, about to close the photo album in April's lap as if that was the end of the story. But before he could close the album, April slammed her hand down on the page, startling all three of the boy's as they gave her a wide eyed expression.

"WAIT! Wait wait wait, hold on a second! The rest is _not_ history! What kind of explanation was that?" April said quickly, pulling the book away from Leo's grasp and flipping the pages back to a certain picture. Leo cocked his head in confusion.

"What kinda explanation was what? What are you talking about, Ape?"

April rapidly flipped through the pages until she found the one she was looking for, holding it up for all the boys to see. "Aren't you forgetting someone? A certain freckled face, cat loving blond, blue eyed baby brother? You haven't said anything about how you met Mikey! Or his past, like, where he came from! He must have been, what, five when you met him? How does he play into the story?"

The picture she was holding up was one of Mikey on his first day of first grade. The kid was squeezing his eyes tight in a giant, toothy grin as he stood in front of the doorway. A backpack that looked much to big for him, most likely a hand-me-down from one of his older brothers, was strapped to his back as he held a Spiderman lunchbox in one hand a gave a huge wave with the other. His mop of golden curls being held back by a large, backwards baseball cap he most likely swiped from Sensei because of the initials Y.H stitched into the back of the cap.

April didn't understand why they all looked stunned at her question, and she felt a weird sensation in her stomach grow with every second they didn't answer her question. They all should have been jumping at her questions, ready to reveal some sort of ridiculous yet hilariously heartwarming story about how the youngest of them joined their crew, yet none of them did. In fact, it almost seemed like all of them were hesitant to forfeit any information on the subject, like, it was taboo or something. Which threw April through a giant loop. Why would, after all they told her, why would _this_ be something they kept to themselves.

Unless...

"We can't, really, tell you April," Leo started, but April was quick to the rebuttal. After the entire story, about how the boys came from awful places, why was this the one thing they didn't want to share?

"You can't or you don't want to?" April asked, and both Raph and Donnie shared a glance as they looked towards the eldest of them. Leo sighed, running his hand through his hair.

"It's not like that April, really. We just _can't_ tell you," he began but once he saw April about to argue back, he shot his hands up in defense to cover April's mouth. "And it's not like we don't want to, I promise. Like, I mean, we _really_ can't tell you. We don't know."

April's furrowed her brow and didn't say anything until Leo had released his hands from her mouth. "What do you mean, _you don't know?_ " She said slowly, and Leo let out another long sigh as Raph returned to typing out his essay.

"He mean's, we _really_ don't know," Donnie began explaining, letting his head rest against his propped arm. "We don't even think Mikey knows. He was really little when we found him. Well, technically Raph was the one that found him. He was walking down by the pier on the way back to the apartment complex we were staying at at the time. It was about to be destroyed for reconstruction or something, so Raph was off looking for a new place for us stay when he heard a noise coming from under one of the more remote loading docks. It was raining really hard at the time, so I guess that's why Mikey was hiding under there, probably for cover. He was crying his head off and wouldn't tell Raph anything about him. Raph assumed he was lost and just brought him home with him, thinking that once he was at least dried off and out of the rain, he'd talk."

"Oh he talked all right. Kid wouldn't shut up about some cat he found once Leo had gotten him to calm down and dried off," Raph muttered, typing fiercely on his laptop. "But whenever we tried to get any info about his parents or where he came from, he'd either clam up or say he didn't know. Still does the same thing now even after all these years. If we try to ask him, he just shrugs it off, saying he doesn't remember or his earliest memories are with us in that old, piece of shit building we lived in."

"We kinda have no choice but to believe him. We could never find any wanted posters for him or any news of a missing kid matching his description. After a couple of weeks, we sorta just took him in. He really was too little, but we didn't know what else to do with him. And we sort of all grew attached. After Sensei found us and wanted to adopt us, he always said Mikey was, well, not really the hardest, but the most confusing adoption. There was no record of Mikey anywhere that he could find. Almost like Mikey never existed, as far as legal matters go. Child services had a field day with him when they found out Mikey had never been vaccinated," Leo explained, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion.

" _That_ was a fun day," Donnie muttered, sighing loudly. "To this day, Mikey throws a fit whenever he has to go in to get a shot or to get his blood work done. And don't get me started on him taking pills."

"In the end though, it doesn't _really_ matter," Leo said, looking April straight in the eye. "The point is, we all were able to find each other and that's the important part. Donnie found me, I found Raph, Raph found Mikey and Sensei found all of us. Doesn't matter where we came from, just matters where we are now."

April allowed Leo to take the album from her, sliding it out of her hands and closing it softly before getting up and returning it to it's spot on the bookshelf. It grew quiet, the only real notable sound was the rain pouring outside and the soft clicking sound of Raph typing on his computer.

She would be lying if she said it wasn't a lot to take in, and she was kinda thankful for the silence the boys gave her to process it all.

Her boys. _Her_ boys. It was almost unreal with what they had to go through. They didn't just go through their childhoods, they _survived_ it. And they came out of as the loving, sweet and amazing boys she knew and loved. They didn't let their pasts define them. They came out the other side better than ever. And they did it together.

Her best friends. Practically her brothers. Her family.

Her heart swelled with emotion and gratitude for all the people that lucked out. All the people that had abandoned them, hurt them, let them slip from their fingers. They didn't deserve them. None of them did. And thank God they didn't, because then she wouldn't have known who her family was, and life without her boys wasn't a life she'd ever want to imagine. It was impossible.

"You ok April?" Donnie asked, shifting himself so that he was now off the floor and sitting on the couch beside her, patting her foot with a worried crease in his brow.

April nodded. "Yeah, I just... I need to remember to say a thank you to Master Yoshi when he comes back."

"For what?" Donnie cocked his head to the side in confusion, but Leo simply nodded at her as if he understood.

"Kinda, for everything, I guess?" April replied, but before Donnie could ask for her to explain further, a loud bang all caught there attention as a cold wind quickly came and left the room.

"The _FUUUUUUUUUN_ HAS _ARRRRIIIIIIIIIIVED!_ " Mikey practically sang, bouncing up and down at the door as he shook his shoes off energetically. "Did you all miss me terribly?"

"Terribly is one way to put it," Raph muttered, closing his laptop at the sight of the pizzas that Mikey now placed beside him. "The pizzas better be all there, in perfect condition, and warm Mikey, or so help me-"

"Relax Raphie, they're fine. I made absolutely NO detours. You'd be proud of me. I didn't even try to sneak a bite on the way over here, so just be glad they're not soaking wet," Mikey breathed heavily, falling over the couch and halfway onto April's lap, making her squeal.

"Ahh-Mikey! You're soaking wet! And freezing!" She complained, but Mikey made no effort to remove himself as he suck himself lower into the couch and onto April.

"Uh, duh. That's what happens when you go outside in the rain. I hauled major keister to get here and back and sadly, not even Raphie's sweatshirt was able to keep me protected from the elements, like rain. And wind. And taxi cars."

"That last one's not an element. And please don't tell me you almost had a run in with a taxi car," Donnie said.

"Fine. I didn't almost had a run in with a taxi car."

"Mikey."

"A taxi car almost had a run in with me."

"Mikey!"

"Get off me, Mikey! You're getting me wet!" April cried, shoving Mikey towards Donnie.

"No, you're warm," Mikey whined but let himself be pushed into the brunette, who would have quickly tackled Mikey if Leo hadn't gotten to him first and pulled him to his feet, pushing the blond to his room.

"First, get dry and change into your pj's. Then, you better come up with a good excuse about how you _didn't_ almost get run over, if you know what's good for you and don't want me confiscating you skateboard for the rest of the year," Leo said sharply and Mikey puffed out his bottom lip in protest.

"Geez, I went through all the trouble of getting my loving family pizza for a relaxing night in, and this is the thanks I get?" Mikey feigned hurt, putting his arm dramatically over his forehead. "After I slaved to get here as soon as I could, nearly risking life and limb to bring you all nutriment. And you threaten me! In my own home! And won't even let me relax on my own couch! You wound me!"

"Son of a- You dirty liar! Half of the pepperoni is gone!" Raph called out angrily from the kitchen, instantly bringing Mikey out of his depressed stupor.

"On second thought, I hear my room and a cozy pair of underwear calling me, if ya'll excuse me."

"You want wounded, I'll show you wounded, come 'ere you little brat!" Raph charged Mikey as they both bolted down the hallway towards their rooms. April couldn't help but let out a laugh as she watched them disappear around the corner. Donnie just sighed loudly as Leo rolled his eyes as he made his way to the kitchen. He opened the cupboard door and began bringing out plates and glasses.

"What are we going to do with them?"

"Love them? Feed them? Never leave them?" Donnie replied, as if the response was so practiced, it was second nature. April sank herself further into the couch, letting herself smile when she heard Mikey's pleas for Raph to stop interrupting into a burst of giggles. "Or we could always sell them to a zoo. I'm sure they'd love some more wild animals. Put Raph with the rhinos. Mikey would make a good monkey. His name and personality are already halfway there."

"Nah, I don't think they'd sell for very high. They'd probably try to refund us for their money back within the first week," Leo answered, handing both April and Donnie a plate of pizza as Donnie turned the t.v on and switched it to Netflix. "Guess we're going to have to go with your first suggestion, Dee."

"Don't we always?" Donnie answered as Leo sat himself down on the couch with his own plate of pizza and a class of soda.

"I think I prefer it that way, anyway," April muttered, leaning closer to Donnie has he pulled up the first Jurassic Park movie.

"Yeah," Leo replied, smiling when he noticed Raph walking in carrying a freshly pajamaed Mikey on his back, the blond fiercely rubbing his mop of curls with a towel as they made their way to secure more pizza and officially begin their movie night marathon.

"Me too."

* * *

 ** _Finally, got it done! Phew! Why the heck is the prologue so long? Simple, there was a lot to explain in order to set up the scene for the new story! Thanks for waiting so long guys! I hope you enjoy it and continue to support it as we get into more about the lives of our favorite ninja brothers! Prepare for a whole heck of a lot of angst, tension, and brotherly love. XOXO until next time!_**


	2. Shots in the Dark Part 1

Oh.

 _Oh_ , how he missed it.

Mikey didn't realize just how much until he had let out an excited and shockingly loud howl four minutes into their run. The looks his brother's had given him were less than appreciated, but could they really blame him? They'd been locked up indoors for nearly three weeks straight because of the rain storm that would just not freaking _leave_ the skies of New York. With winter practically on their doorsteps and with the flu going around, Sensei had put _the_ lock down on any and all things Ninja until the weather got better.

After about four days into the constant rain fall and being on basic house arrest, other than going to school and the occasional pizza run, Mikey thought he was never going to make it.

He'd try to keep himself occupied, he really, truly, _with all his heart_ , tried to. But there was only so much a fourteen year old Mikey could do to keep himself on the sane side of sanity. He'd beaten every video game they owned at _least_ twice, achievements and everything. Watched as many episodes of Space Heroes and other various animes with Leo as he could stand. He even _tried_ to help Donnie with his gadgets and whatever else the brainiac was tinkering on, but after the fifth explosion, Mikey decided for the both of them that he'd better quit while he was ahead before Donnie _exploded_ on him.

For awhile, he found himself pretty occupied sparring with Raph in the dojo, but even that became a bit too much after about the first week and a half. Because sparring with your older brother is one thing. But sparring with your older brother after the two of you have been cooped up indoors for almost two weeks is on a whole new level to dangerous and just down right crazy. Crazy even more Mikey.

Cause he was a proudly annoying little brother who liked to egg Raph on when they were duking it out on the dojo mats. Except a stir crazy Raph being pushed to the mental limit by an equally stir crazy Mikey is not a physics equation that needs to be solved. _Seriously_. It doesn't take a Donnie to know that a Raph plus a Mikey, multiplied by a _heckofalota_ indoor time and brotherly bonding will lead to nothing but a whole lot of screaming, broken bones or sprains that may or may not be self inflicted, possible fire if the mood is right, and all the duct tape in the house to go mysteriously missing _which has absolute no correlation to anything Don you must have replaced I am innocent until proven guilty and_ _ **YOU CAN'T PROVE ANYTHING.**_

Needless to say, they were all a little antsy and on edge from the confinement. And just when Mikey was afraid that they were all going to snap if anyone so much as made one tiny little obnoxious sound, which _let's face it_ , Mikey isn't capable of if his life depended on it, the rain had stopped.

At first, his brothers didn't even notice until later on in the night, when Sensei, who had barricaded himself in his room as his own line of defense against his cabin fever stricken sons, had eagerly pointed it out to them. The boys didn't even waste a second putting on their matching green sweaters and buckling on their gear before hightailing it to the nearest skyscraper rooftop.

And it just goes to show how truly suffocating it must have been in their home if Sensei didn't even try to stop them from going out so late at night. In all honesty, Mikey didn't even know how his father didn't snap within the three weeks they had been stuck together. Because if his brothers didn't tear each other apart, he was almost positive Sensei would have.

The moment the night wind hit Mikey's face, he was hooked. He breathed in the refreshingly raw air, still moist from the downpour, so hungrily his lungs started to hurt. But Mikey could care less. He welcomed the cold wind as he booked it across the rooftops of the neighboring buildings around him, his brothers right along beside him.

He ran as fast as he could and even then he tried to run faster. He jumped and cartwheeled and flipped and basically tried to stretch every single muscle he could. He wasn't going to lie, he had gotten a little rusty, and from doing nothing but cooking and lazying about the house for three weeks put a little flab around his stomach. His muscles and legs and lungs began to grow sore within the first couple of minutes, but even then he didn't stop.

He didn't want to stop the feeling of the wind blowing through his now hoodless and unkempt hair. He didn't want to stop the feeling of the night air creating goosebumps on his skin and a cold sweat to run down his back. He didn't want to stop the feeling of fire burning in his chest.

He'd missed it. Missed feeling alive like this. Missed being free like this. And judging from the way the smiles grew on his brother's faces told him that they had missed it just as much.

They went on like that for nearly an hour. Just running and laughing and joking and soaking up every last bit of their first night out in what felt like _too freaking long_ too Mikey. It wasn't until Leo had stopped at the edge of one of the taller buildings that they had ended their little freedom run and took in the night life of the city. It was only around 10 at night, but the city was as busy as it always was, and maybe even a little more so now that the weather was better and more people were out enjoying it.

Leo had suggested that they should probably head back home since it was too risky to be patrolling with so many people walking around, and probably looking up towards the sky to see if the forces of nature was actually playing some sick joke on them all and about to open up another can of week long suffering and rain. Mikey had promptly, and too his credit, accordingly boo'd that suggestion.

He didn't want to go yet. He was enjoying being outside too much. Sure, his legs were practically screaming at him and he was breathing so heavy that the air around him was white with his breath clouds, but Mikey wasn't exhausted in the slightest. He could and _would_ go another 10k if it meant staying out for as long as Leo would let him.

"Come on Fearless, we've been cooped up for _weeks_. Lets enjoy this a little longer and actually _do_ something," Raph had thankfully added, punching his fist into his hand. "I'm itching for a little more action. And honestly, if you try to stick me under the same roof as Mikey before I get my fix, my teenage bullshit is about to have a body count."

He shifted his gaze towards Mikey and gave an apologetic nod in his direction. "No offence bro."

"Ehh, it's fair," Mikey shrugged in agreement, deciding the stow away his plan of stealing Raph's phone and hiding it somewhere in his room for it to go off every ten minutes with an extremely irritating ringtone for a later date when Raph wasn't so fidgety to use his fists on something other than a punching bag.

"I hate to agree with Raph, _always_ , but he's got a point. I love my lab, but if I have to look at one more beaker I think I'm going to go insane," Donnie sighed, folding his arms. "And no Mikey, not the weird, kooky, mad scientist kind of insane that you keep insisting I'll become one day."

"All I'm saying is that if the crazy comes a knocking, bro, don't fight it. Plus, you've pretty much all ready got the Eisenstein wacky, bed head hair going for ya. All you need is the dirty lab coat and the hecka short and ugly henchman to complete the look. I volunteer Raph."

"I'll volunteer my fist into your face in a second, you little-,"

"Alright, alright, I get it. We need a little more fresh air to fight off the cabin fever. Preferably away from each other," Leo rubbed the bridge of his nose, but he didn't seem all too upset about making the decision to stay out longer. "We'll split up. We'll still head back in the direction of home, but be on the lookout for anything criminal. If you see anything, and I mean anything, make sure to call for backup _first_ and _then_ engage. I'm looking at you Raph."

Leo took out his phone to check the time before sliding it back into his zipper pocket. "It's 10:12 right now. Let's try to be home by around 11:30, at most midnight. It's a school night so I don't want us to be out all night in the cold. Everyone have their cells to stay in contact?"

Mikey and Raph both pulled out their phones to show, but Donnie just kept his arms folded. "Pfft, does an electron have 2000 times less mass than a proton?"

"I'm going to assume that it does," Mikey answered, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"You'd assume correctly then."

"Ha, nice. 10 awesome ninja points to this dude," Mikey laughed, pointing a thumb at himself before Raph rolled his eyes and side checked him with his hip, sending the blond off balance and into a skilled handstand.

"Enough chit chat, can we go now? I know there's a Purple Dragon out their with my foot written all over their butt," Raph stated aggressively.

"Thanks for _that_ mental image Raph. And yes, we can," Leo turned towards the city below and pointed down a street. "Raph, you and Donnie'll take Flatbush all the way to Myrtle. Mikey and I will head down Flatlands and Fountain. We'll meet back at Forest Park and then head home. Sound good?"

Raph cracked his knuckles excitedly, a grin growing on his face. "Music to my ears. Think you can keep up D?"

"Does a plant cell have a cyto-,"

"Answer the question like a normal person D, or I'm gonna smack the sanity right out of ya."

"Says the short and ugly Henchman."

"Oh, you're dead," Raph growled as he chased Donnie off the building and towards Flatbush Avenue. Leo rolled his eyes before lifting a brow towards Mikey, who was still strutting a hand stand.

"Can't very well let them have all the fun, can we?" Leo laughed. Mikey rolled backwards and sprang to his feet next to his older brother. A cheeky smile growing on his face as he rested an arm on Leo's shoulders.

"Well, not if all we're doing is running around hoping a mugging happens down the street we're on," Mikey said, and Leo raised his eyebrow higher.

"Well it sounds bad when you put it like that."

"What I mean is," Mikey began, patting Leo's shoulder. "Why don't we make it a little more interesting."

"I'm listening, but I don't know if I'm liking," Leo said but Mikey quickly hushed him and pointed towards the direction of the park.

"A race. First one to Forest park wins. Loser has to do winners chores and give up pizza privileges for a week," Mikey said, and Leo whistled.

"Woah, pizza privileges is some big bid to bet. You sure you're up to it?"

Mikey grinned in response. "I wouldn't be betting my one true love if I wasn't, dude."

All jokes aside, betting pizza privileges was basic sacrilege and a taboo amoungst other things, but Mikey was feeling it tonight. He was feeling good. Like _really_ good. Like, free popcorn at the movies and golden retriever puppies kind of good. He wanted to run again. Even faster than he did earlier. He wanted to feel the wind in his hair and the air against his skin and his lungs to burn with the feeling of being alive.

And plus, beating one of his older brothers at something just added to the adrenaline high.

"You got your inhaler?" Mikey asked, and Leo patted one of the pockets on his pants.

"I'd be more worried about yourself baby bro. And how you're about to do all the dishes for a whole week," Leo grinned back and walked to the edge of the building, Mikey close in tow.

"Oh ho ho, we'll see about that, I have some pretty gross gym socks that I haven't washed in weeks just screaming your name and some math homework due Friday," Mikey laughed, stretching his arms over his chest.

"Homework isn't a chore, Mikey."

"Maybe not to you."

Leo rolled his eyes and stared down Flatlands Avenue. "No cheap tricks or weapons allowed. Just racing. That big pine tree at the entrance of the park is the finish line. First one to touch it wins. You ready?"

"Ready for you to eat my shorts."

"If they're anything like your gym socks, I think I'll pass," Leo leaned on the rooftop's edge and Mikey did the same, planting one foot solidly on the side, ready to kick off as soon as Leo gave the signal.

"Redi. Setto. Ikimasu!"

And they were off, faster than what was probably normal for any other teenager. But Mikey and his brothers were anything _but_ normal teenagers.

They were also ninjas.

And _this_ ninja was about to kick some serious older brother butt.

Mikey hollered excitedly again as he pulled ahead, naturally. He was the smallest of the bunch, but darn it if it didn't also mean that he was the fastest. He had it in the bag. Ace in hand. Hole in one. The whole shebang.

Or, he'd like to admit, but for a guy with asthma, Leo was keeping up pretty freaking well. Mikey did not have the luxury to take it easy and pull a few cool stunts to show off, no matter how badly he wanted to. He had to keep focused on his goal. _Beat Leo. Beat Leo and make him do that math assignment that you really don't want to do._

But it was hard when the feeling of the wind started playing with Mikey's hair, distracting him in all the best ways. Every jump and leap made him feel like he could fly, putting butterflies in his stomach and what seemed like infinite space under his feet. And so he'd try to jump and leap even higher with every new building they ran across.

 _Math homework Mikey. Stick with the goal here, man._

"By the way," Leo called out, pulling up beside Mikey. "Why haven't you washed your socks yet?"

Mikey shrugged the best he could as he hurtled over an air conditioning system. "Been saving them for a prank I was planning for Raph."

"Nasty."

"I know, my dude. It was gonna be _awesome_."

Leo laughed and before Mikey could register it, pulled up in front of him and blazed ahead. He reached the end where Flatlands meets Fountain Avenue and made the cross over the bustling city street like a pro. He flashed Mikey a pointed salute before charging forward, and even though Mikey knew Leo wouldn't see him, he still stuck his tongue out towards his older brother.

"You wanna go dude? That's how we'll go," Mikey muttered and pushed himself as hard as he could go. He was starting to feel his legs tremble from exhaustion, but he promptly ignored them. His only thoughts were consumed with the goal of beating Leo. He made the cross just as easily as Leo had, with even a little bit of extra flair cause he could, and finally caught up to Leo.

Leo was breathing heavy, but when their eyes met, Mikey smiled at the look of determination that blazed within them. Neither were going down without a fight, which honestly, made it more fun.

A rather large alley way was coming ahead, a huge gap that separated the two buildings loomed before them and Mikey knew that he was going to have to really press himself to the limit if he wanted to make it before Leo. He slowly pulled ahead, and as the gap grew closer, Mikey thought of how much more the sweet victory of winning would taste he if he made the jump look completely effortless and did a bit of showing off.

He cracked a split second grin to Leo as he prepared to jump. "Watch how a Ninja does, brah."

And he jumped.

The plan was to do a sick double front flip, with him solo air guitaring it the entire time until he landed perfectly, with fireworks and thousands of people cheering him on as he accepted the key to the city and a cash reward for his awesome stunt.

Sadly, _that_ fantastic day dream never got to see the light of reality, cause Mikey didn't even make it half way across the gap before he started falling. He frantically tried to twist his body, reaching for the fire escape attached to the side of one of the buildings. His momentum was too strong for him to be able to grab the railing the first time, but his slip up greatly decreased his fall as he managed his grab the next one with one of his hands. However, with gravity working against him and the fact that the railing was still wet from the rain, Mikey could do little to stop himself from slipping off the metal fire escape as he came crashing down to the bottom of the alley. Luckily, there was an open dumpster to soften his landing, unluckily, _it was an open dumpster._

"Beans," Mikey groaned as he pulled himself off his back and into a sitting position in the trash.

"Mikey!" The blond looked up at his older brother who was standing on the very fire escape that had managed to elude his grasp, looking down on him with a look of concern. "Are you ok? Are you hurt?"

"Besides my pride, no," Mikey said, shaking off an old banana peel from his sleeve. "I'm fine. I guess the jump was a lot bigger than I thought it was. Good thing these coffee grounds were here to make for a soft, if not extremely gross and smelly, landing."

Leo sighed loudly in relief, and then gave Mikey a cheeky grin as he looked back up towards the rooftops. "Well then, I guess you'll have a lot more laundry to wash beside just your dirty socks then. You know, when you lose the race."

And with the speed of a tornado, Leo climbed back up the fire escape and onto the opposing building. He flashed Mikey another salute and charged back towards the park entrance.

"What? Wait Leo! That's not- ACK!" Mikey tried to call out while pulling himself out of the garbage can, only to trip on some of the trash in it and fall out clumsily, landing on his butt on the cold and wet pavement of the alley way.

" _Bunch of baloney_ ," Mikey cursed under his breath, bringing himself to his feet and dusting off the remaining garbage on his clothes that had tried to escape with him. "Lucky Raph, cause my gym socks now have Leo's name written _all_ over them."

He was about to pull himself back up the fire escape and barrel after his older brother, but a commotion across the street caught his attention.

And Mikey was reminded of the entire reason why his brothers were still out in the first place.

Three _very_ big and _very_ mean looking dudes were blocking the entrance of the alley way just across from him, and from what little Mikey could tell, he was pretty sure there was two woman they were blocking. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but the sheer volume and tension in their voices told Mikey that these guys _weren't_ just giving these girls directions.

He reached into his pocket to call Leo but a horrifying feeling struck him when he realized his phone wasn't in there. He searched frantically for it, checking all the pockets he had on them, only to realize a horrifying truth as he looked towards the garbage can beside him.

"Ok, now that's just not fair," Mikey whined. Before he could even think to make the decision of whether or not he should go dumpster diving for his cell or not, one of the girls let out a muffled scream, and he noticed that there was haphazard movement coming from the suspicious group.

Mikey tightened the orange mask around his face and pulled his sweatshirt hood over his head.

There wasn't any time to waste.

"Let her go, you're hurting her!" One of the girls yelled, trying to pry one of the guy's hands of her friend, but the other two grabbed her instead and held her in place. She kicked and struggled, but the two meaty guys were just too bulky and too drunk for her to have any success in escaping. The men just laughed at the girls expense, and the one holding on to the crying girl's wrist leaned in creepily close to her, pressing her up against the wall.

"Shhhh, baby girl, it's all going to be fine. My friends and I are just a little drunk and would like some company before we all go home," he cooed into the girls ear, slithering a hand up her waist. The girl tried hard to hold back a sob. "If you stay quiet, then we can all go home very soon and very happy. Got it?"

Before the man could make any more moves, Mikey was already on top of him, literally. As in, Mikey kinda sorta _definitely_ tripped up again and fell on top of the dude while trying to sneak up on them from the roof, landing on him with a skilled _ooff_.

The man groaned, but was clearly knocked unconscious by the force driven into him from Mikey's fall. Mikey didn't complain however, as he jumped to his feet and unbuckled his nunchucks from his belt.

If the other two men were shocked, they quickly got over it as they both let go of the girl and tossed her behind them, staring at Mikey with a sort of toxic glare.

"What the fuck is with _this_ kid?" The man on the left slurred. He had a grossly large mole on the side of his nose. For simplicities sake, Mikey called him G _uacaMOLE_. "What's with the superhero mask brat?"

"Better than the ugly mugs you're wearing, that's what," Mikey stood protectively in front of the crying girl who was holding her wrist up securely against her chest, like she was in pain. The two girls couldn't have been very old, they looked about the same age as April, and that alone made something sick and dark twist at the bottom of Mikey's stomach. He span his nunchucks at his side, giving his own venomous stare back at them. "And for the record, it's a ninja mask, you jerks."

The two men charged, albeit drunkenly, but it was easy to side step them. One of them had pulled out a knife, but Mikey quickly smacked that away from them and sent it skidding under a nearby dumpster. _Better just get rid of any nasty stuff while we're ahead of the game._ He brought one of the nunchucks down on GuacaMOLE's head and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying towards the wall and out cold onto the floor. Mikey quickly walked to the girl who had been thrown onto the ground and pulled her onto her feet, pushing her towards her crying friend.

"Call a taxi and get you two home safe. Call the police once you're in the car. Have a nice night and please don't tell the police about me, thanks, bye!" Mikey said turning back around towards the one guy standing left. The girls didn't waste anytime in leaving. They gave Mikey a shaky thank you before booking it around the corner and out of immediate harms way. Mikey let out a sigh of relief and focused on the guy in front of him.

The other guy got his bearings from having his weapon knocked out of his hands and charged again, throwing his fists wildly. For the most part, Mikey avoided them all, but one just brushed off his left shoulder and put him awkwardly off balance. The man thought he could use Mikey's mild inconvenience to his advantage and tackle him, but what Mikey lacked in balance on his feet, he could make up for with his hands.

He rolled backwards into a handstand, bringing his feet swinging upward and kicking the dude straight in the chin, buying Mikey enough time to get back on his feet and smack the dude in his dumb head with his nunchuck. Not hard enough to cause any real damage, but definitely hard enough to put him out of commission for awhile.

Mikey breathed out slowly, buckled his nunchucks back on his belt and swatted his hands together as if clearing any dirt from them. We walked over to GuacaMOLE and looked to see if he had any weapons on him. Sure enough, the dude had a knife similar to the one Mikey knocked out of the other guy's hand. He tossed it into the garbage.

"If I lose my phone in the trash then you lose your knife," Mikey said, and was about to to head back up the side of the building and catch up with Leo, before he heard a soft click from behind him.

Mikey never realized that the guy he had fallen on had woken back up and was now pointing a gun straight at Mikey's head. Mikey just dared enough to turn his head slightly to look at the man behind him, his eyes wide with fear as he stared down the barrel of the gun.

Avoiding a knife was easy enough. But a gun, this close in range? Mikey felt a chill run down his spine, as if he finally felt how cold the November night was.

And right before the gun went off, somewhere in the back of Mikey's mind, a voice he hand't heard in almost ten years whispered a soft memory to him.

 _I'm sorry, Michelangelo._

 ** _BANG._**

* * *

 ** _I'm so. So. SO SORRY EVERYONE. I had absolutely NO plan to wait this long to update, but for some reason, every time I tried to write and upload something, my computer would either glitch out or shut down and I'd lose everything. This must have happened about 4 times, and I soon began to grow increasingly irritated by it and frustrated that I couldn't write it. Finally though, at about 4 am, I decided to fuck everything and simple write out this entire chapter from scratch. I took a completely different route then what I was going for but I actually liked how this turned out a whole lot better than I originally planned. SO yeah to that!_**

 ** _Thank you all so much who have stuck with me throughout these couple of months. Your messages and commitment mean all the world to me, and you are the people I'm writing for! Thank you so much darlings! Just to put all uneasiness aside, I have no intention of dropping this story. I still really want to write it out and tell it, so if it may seem that I haven't uploaded in awhile, do not fear. Things might have just gotten a little hectic for me but do not worry. This is a story that will continue to grow and I can't wait for you all to read it!_**

 ** _Woah, what a sketchy way to end off this chapter. Does Mikey survive the battle against the gun? Who is the voice he hears in the back of his head? Will he ever get to pull that sock prank on Leo? Find out next time sweeties! Love you!_**

 ** _PS. It's about 1 in the afternoon now that I finish this, so I'm gonna take a nap. Sorry if there are any mis-spellings or grammar mistakes. I literally can not see the screen at this point, I'm so tired, so forgive my laziness, I'll go back over it and fix it later. Thank you!_**


	3. Shots in the Dark Part 2

**_-ikey, are you-_**

 ** _-ure no one's here-_**

 ** _-orry I'm so, so sorr-_**

 ** _-saw the Pieta statue-_**

 ** _-ut up! Shut up! Don't touc-_**

 ** _-look at me dude, you sure-_**

 ** _-I'm sorry, Michelangelo-_**

 _Falling._

 _Falling._

 _Why am I falling? Who are- where are the voices coming from? What are they saying? I can barely hear them. Why can't I hear them? Why can't I see anyone?_

 _Why is it dark?_

 _Why am I so sad?  
Am I sad that I'm falling? _

_Why do I feel like I'm sinking.  
Falling or sinking? _

_Darkness.  
_ _Darkness and falling.  
_

 _Sinking.  
_

 _Can't breathe. Oh god I can't breathe!_

 _Someone help, someone help me!  
_

 _I'm falling!  
_

 ** _I'm falling!_**

 _ **I'm** -_

* * *

Mikey's eyes flew open, his hands clutching at the blankets that twisted around his torso in an encased mess. He gasped loudly, his breaths short and panicky as his eyes darted around him frantically. His brain felt fuzzy and alert all at the same time as he tried to grasp his surroundings in whatever manner he could.

Breathe _in_.

Breathe _out_.

He was on the ground, in his bedroom, safely at home. His back laying flat on the carpeted floor, his eyes drifting to the soft illumination of the glow in the dark star stickers Donnie had expertly put on his ceiling a forgot amount of years ago. The reminiscent smell of a Pecan Pumpkin Cake candle he had blown out earlier that night still lingered in the air. Somewhere under him, an action figure was poking uncomfortably into his back.

"Bad dream," Mikey whispered, the familiarity of the room relaxing him enough to slow down his breathing until he felt comfortable enough to pull himself into a sitting position on his cluttered bedroom floor. He looked around the room until he spotted his turtle clock sitting on his dresser. **4:13 AM** was blinking an obnoxious red at him and he groaned, rubbing his face with both hands.

He had only gotten about four and a half hours of sleep after his brothers and him had trudged their way through the back door of their apartment complex over the dojo their dad ran. Having come home later than they had wanted due to an _'unfortunate'_ run in Mikey had landed himself in.

Mikey shook his head, as if the action would get rid of the unpleasant memory trying to resurface itself.

There really _wasn't_ much of a memory to begin with. Nothing _really_ happened. Thankfully.

No sooner did Mikey stare down the barrel of the gun being pointed at him, did he see his older brother spring into action. Leo, though when he had did it would forever be a mystery to Mikey, had somehow gotten right behind the thug and smacked him in the back of the knees with the blunt side of one of his Katanas, right as the man fired his gun. The blow as he fell caused him to shoot at an upward angle, completely missing Mikey and hitting a fire escape ladder above with a loud metallic _RING_. Leo then grabbed the man's coat collar and threw him into the near by wall so hard, the jerks head almost smacked as loudly as the fire escape did.

Looking back on it now, Mikey could have sworn Leo's eyes appeared white as a sheet, almost like they had rolled into the back of his head out of pure rage. And honestly, he was almost positive that Leo was about to do a lot worse to the dude besides throwing him into a wall, but in an instant, Leo was right in front of Mikey's line of sight. Familiar dark and steady blue eyes staring right into his, wide and unblinking as he ran his hands up and down Mikey's arms.

" _Mikey! Oh my God, Mikey, are you ok_?"

He was. And for all his worth, Mikey tried to verbalize it, but all he could do was swallow and nod slowly, his eyes moving back and forth between Leo's to the unconscious man on the ground. Everything seemed to slow down at that point. Leo's constant questions about if he was ok or if he was hurt anywhere all seemed to blend into the background noise of the city. He vaguely remembered Donnie and Raph showing up only minutes later, shouting and asking even more questions that Mikey didn't pay enough attention to to answer with anything more than a nod. He remembered feeling multiple hands on him. Shaking arms grabbing him and side hugging him, fingers running through his hair, palms cupping and rubbing his cheeks and the side of his face, warm and large hands pulling him along, up and out of the alleyway and back towards home.

He felt like he was in a drugged daze, numb and oblivious to all the things around him and yet hyper aware of it all at the same time. He couldn't, even if he wanted too, tell you what his brothers were saying to him on their way home. Couldn't remember what their expressions were. Couldn't react to any of their actions. Didn't even remember coming home or even reaching his bed.

He could tell you though, how bright the city lights were. How red and blue flashing lights seemed to fill the street they were just on with almost a silent sort of intensity. How the goosebumps on his arms didn't go away no matter how much he rubbed and tried to warm them. How Raph had made sure to unload the gun of any bullets and throw them into the dumpster before they had left.

And, what seemed like the most important detail, how the air felt really heavy and thick, like it was doing his best to slow him down. Distracting him. Making him lose focus. Almost like he was wading through a pool of sludge, the mugginess of it sticking to his legs and dragging him back. Back into that dark alley way. Back to something he most certainly didn't want to go back into.

Mikey untangled the sheets from his legs and threw them back onto his bed. He shifted himself on the floor, moving the action figure from under him, and rested his back against the side of his bed. He laid his head back on the top of the mattress and closed his eyes. He was tired. Tired beyond belief. So tired, that he knew he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep again no matter how hard he tried.

With a long and overly dramatic sigh, Mikey rubbed his face with a new found enthusiasm and shot to his feet. It was a Friday, so despite how early it was, he still had to get ready for school. He walked out of his room, quietly walked past his brother's rooms so he didn't disturb them, and into the bathroom.

The hot water felt amazing on his skin, waking him up almost completely. There was just something magical about showers, and Mikey would defend shower time with his life. He could easily spend the rest of his years in a shower if it was socially acceptable, and maybe if he could also eat unlimited pizza and Chinese takeout in it, hands down. See, showers were a place you could get away with being completely safe and alone in. There was no one to judge you. No one to tell you what to do or how to do it. You could have the water as hot or cold as you wanted, you could sing whatever you wanted and do as many bubble impersonations as you wanted with the shampoo soap. Not to mention you could literally stand there for an hour just soaking in the warmth and not even think about a single thing in the world. You could be in a shower and just _be_.

And honestly, who doesn't like feeling all nice and clean and smelling like fresh almond and shea butter? No one. And if they don't, then they're _dirty stink'en liars and are as bad as Donnie when he's working on a new project_. Which is always. _The nerd_.

Mikey walked out of the shower and back into his bedroom, changed into a clean graphic tee and a pair of jeans and walked into the kitchen, drying his hair with the towel around his neck.

It was 5:15 when he turned on the kitchen lights, which flickered a few times before turning on fully. Mikey made a mental note to ask Donnie if they had any extra light bulbs laying around. He started up a pot of coffee and threw a kettle of hot water on the stove, before getting some cooking supplies out of the cupboard.

Today was Friday. And Fridays were pancake days. And not to toot his own horn, but Mikey's pancakes were the best heck'in pancakes this side of the country. Or at least, that's what Raph would exclaim with a mouthful of them. However, Raph would just about eat anything you put in front of him, so Mikey had to wonder just how much faith he should put into his brother's claims.

Regardless, pancakes are pancakes, and you couldn't really make a bad one even if you tried. And April, _amazing and wonderful April_ , had just came back from visiting her Grandma's farm outside the city, and had brought Mikey a huge butt load of fresh, beautiful blue and strawberries from Nana O'Neil's greenhouse. Which was already amazing of her, considering they were totally not in season right now, and after the night they had had, Mikey thought it was the perfect opportunity to break those suckers out to make some seriously delicioso breakfast goodies.

Humming _Mumbo Numbah 5_ under his breath, because seriously when did he ever NOT have that stupidly catchy song stuck in his head, he began mixing ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Only pausing here and there to grab something from the fridge or add an impromptu dance move to his humming. Not really thinking hard about what he was doing and just going on basic instinct, Mikey was so distracted he didn't even notice his father come into the kitchen until the old man cleared his throat, surprising Mikey so much he almost threw his stirring spoon into the air.

Master Yoshi chuckled good humorously as Mikey made a scramble to grab the spoon by the _right_ side and walked over to the cupboard, bringing down one of the many decorated tea cups and poured himself a cup of hot water.

"Good morning, my son. You're up earlier than usual," the man smiled, grabbing a box of Lemon Ginger tea and dabbing a packet into his cup. Mikey smiled back, finally having gotten a _handle (get it, handle?...)_ on the spoon and returned to stirring it's contents.

"Morn'en dad," Mikey answered. "Yeah just, uh, had a bad dream and I couldn't fall back to sleep. So, here I am."

Yoshi raised an eyebrow as he brought out a spoon and a jar of honey and began stirring that into his tea. "Bad dream? Would you like to talk about it?"

Mikey thought back to the voices he had heard, but his memory of the dream was already fading way to much for him to recall anything from it, so he shook his head. "Nahhh, to be honest, I can't even really remember what it was about. You know how you just wake up, and even though you don't remember having the nightmare, you still have that bad feeling in your gut that tells you that you had one, even if you don't remember it at all? That's kinda what it is." Mikey stopped stirring the batter to bring out the griddle and plug it in, before going to the fridge and bringing out the fresh berries. "But I'm good."

Mikey puffed out his chest as he got out a knife and cutting board from a drawer. "Besides _, 'it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live_ '," the blond said in an overly exaggerated old man's voice. Master Yoshi just stared at his youngest and nodded simply.

"Wise words. Are they yours?"

"Dumbledore's."

"Ahh, I see," Master Yoshi nodded again, finally taking a sip of his tea. "Maybe I should look into reading those books. This, _'Dumbledore'_ , sounds like a knowledgeable man."

Mikey couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of his father reading the Harry Potter series simply for the purpose of using some old wizard quotes as lecturing ammo to use against him and his brothers. "Donnie's got the whole series in his room if you're interested. Word of warning though, do not ask him any questions about the series unless you want to have to sit through a five hour conversation about all the plot holes of the series. Seriously. You have not known boredom until Dee starts complaining to you about how the _'fictional wizarding monetary value and economics makes no sense'_."

At his lame impersonation of his brainiac older brother, his father let out a small chuckle and Mikey smiled to himself as he cut up the strawberries. This was nice, Mikey hardly ever had time chat like this, when it was just him and his dad. Not training. Not being lectured. Just having a nice and normal conversation. And although it wasn't much of a talk, it was still something nice.

And Mikey would take nice any day of the week.

"So, what happened last night?"

Mikey was _not_ about to cut himself with his father right there beside him, but _jeez_ , he's gonna need more of a warning next time if his father is going to suddenly ask bomb infused questions when he's wielding pointy and sharp objects. Mikey paused and turned towards his father, only to be met with a raised brow expression from the old master.

"Did something happen?" Master Yoshi asked again, sensing Mikey's pause and Mikey quickly shook off whatever worried expression he may have had on and put on a smile, trying not to let out a nervous giggle.

"Ah, no! Nothing happened, it's just, ah, I thought Leo already filled ya in." Mikey supplied, wondering if it was a good or bad thing he was getting so good at pulling random bs out of the air and using it to his advantage. Let's go with good. Cause _heck_ , there was _NO_ way he was about to ruin the mood and spill the metaphorical tea on himself about last night's shenanigans. Cause really, how do you tell your dad _'hey, we were only late coming home last night because I almost got shot in the mouth by some street thug, which hey, if you think about it, isn't so different from any other day **when I constantly shoot myself in the freaking mouth because I put myself into these sorts of stupidly confrontational set ups.** SOOOOOOOOOO, it's all good in the hood dude'_ , all chill like?

Trick question. You don't. _Ever_.

"It was late last night when you all came home, and you all seemed pretty eager to go to bed so I didn't ask. Leo also didn't act like he had anything to tell me," Master Yoshi paused, staring at Mikey with a sort of dad like ferocity that only came from years of raising boy's that always, _always_ , had something to confess about. "You _don't_ have something to tell me, right?"

Thank god, Mikey's bs-ing skills were on point so early in the morning, or else he probably would have been grounded for the rest of his life. And when it came to a Hamato grounding, well, you don't take those sorts of things lightly. "Well, to be truthful sensei, I accidently dropped my phone while we were patrolling, and uh, that's mainly the reason we got held up last night."

Ok, so it wasn't _all_ that truthful, but it wasn't a complete lie either, _technically_. Which, if you think about it, is the lesser of two evils, right? If he hadn't had dropped his phone, he wouldn't have even been in the situation he was in cause Leo would have been right there beside him and the gun would have never been an issue.

Probably.  
Most likely.  
Right?  
 _Right?_

Yeah, Mikey wasn't really good at convincing himself either. But hey, can't blame a ninja for trying.

"You dropped your phone? Where at? Did you retrieve it?" Master Yoshi asked worriedly.

"I dropped it near Fountain on the way to Forest Park, and uh, no. We didn't find it. I may or may not have dropped it into a dumpster," Mikey finished up cutting the strawberries and turned on his heel, facing his father. "And yeah, I know! I'm really sorry! I was goofing around, but don't worry! I plan to go looking for it after school today! The dumpsters on that street don't get picked up for another day or so, so we should be good!"

Mickey grabbed the bowl of pancake batter and began pouring it big and perfect circles onto the now hot griddle, the satisfying sizzling sound making up for the silence that came from Master Yoshi as he thought.

After a few more seconds, Master Yoshi just sighed and put his spoon in the sink. "Very well. But bring one of your brothers with you. And if you lose your phone again, it will be dojo cleaning for a week, understood?" Master Yoshi turned, tea cup in hand, and walked towards the stairs leading down to the first floor as Mikey called out a 'Yes Sir!'

Before he began his decent downstairs though, he turned around and called out to his youngest son. "Oh, and Michelangelo?"

Mikey lifted his head from putting some of the cut strawberries on the uncooked side of the pancakes and gave a simple, 'hmmm?"

"Save me a few banana pancakes, if you will?"

Mikey smiled brightly and gave a small salute. "I got you covered, fam."

The next hour and a half was spent in silence, other than the occasional sizzle of fresh pancake batter and random shuffling downstairs in the dojo as Mikey finished off the stacks of banana, blueberry and strawberry pancakes. He had just put away a separate stack of banana pancakes in the fridge for their father when a very tired looking Leo walked into the kitchen.

He was dressed and ready for school, but his black hair was a bit disheveled and tossed to the side as he yawned and reached for a tea cup from the cupboard. Making himself his own cup of tea as Mikey snickered.

"Nice bed head, bro," Mikey said, preparing a plate of blueberry pancakes for his older brother.

"Morning to you too, Mikey," Leo replied, making his tea almost effortlessly as he slide into one of the island stools and took the plate off his little brother's hands. "Woah, blueberries? And strawberries? What's the special occasion?"

"Nothing special. April brought them over from her visit from Nana O'Neil's a few days ago so I thought I'd whip us up some. Pretty knarly, right?" Mikey said, preparing his own plate of strawberry and banana pancakes and leaned against the island opposite of Leo.

"I'll say, we'll have to make sure to thank April and her grandma. Pass some maple syrup please."

"Oh dude, already way ahead of you," Mikey slide the maple syrup across the table and into Leo's awaiting hands. "I made sure to make extra of each so that I could bring her some at school today."

"That's pretty optimistic of you, thinking that there are going to be any leftovers with the bottomless pit over in the next room."

Mikey laughed as he took a bite out of his pancakes. "Don't worry, I have ways of taming the beast. If it looks like he's going to scarf most of it down, I'll just threaten him."

Since his mouth was full, Leo only raised a skeptical brow towards the youngest Hamato, to which Mikey replied with a grin and a twirl of his fork. "I'm planning on making some lasagna tonight, and unless he wants his fair share of cheesy gooey meatiness, then he'd best be sucking up to me anyway he can."

"Hmmm," Leo replied, swallowing first and then taking a sip of tea before replying. "And how do you suppose I should suck up to you to get in on this lasagna action?"

"You don't need to," Mikey said slowing, pouring some maple syrup on his own pancakes and watching the thick stream of syrup pour for awhile before answering. "You didn't tell dad about... about last night?"

Leo only shrugged, cutting out another piece of pancake and popping it into his mouth. "Didn't think I need to. Nothing hugely happened. No one got hurt, and we all made it safe and sound, no worse than we left off."

He paused, looking up at Mikey and waited until Mikey returned the look. "You _are_ ok, right?"

Mikey didn't even need to think about his answer before responding. "Oh yeah, no, I'm completely fine. I mean, I guess I was a little shocked last night, but I'm ok now." Which was the truth. Mikey _was_ fine. Really. Thinking back on it now, he supposed he was pretty spooked by it at first, but honestly, who wouldn't be if they almost had a gun pointed at them. But he really didn't feel anything negative about the situation now.

Leo let a few beats pass before he nodded in response. "Yeah, that's understandable, that's why I thought it best to wait to tell father until I knew how you were. I think we were all a bit shaken up after something like that. But if you're honestly ok, then I am too."

Mikey smiled and took another bite out of his pancake stack. "Thanks Leo. I owe you one."

"Just promise me that if it _does_ end up bothering you, you'll tell me, ok? Then we'll be even." Leo winked, and Mikey let out a short snort.

"Deal."

'What're you to dorks making bets about so early in the morning?"

Mikey turned his head to see Raph walk out of the hallway and into the kitchen. Freshly showered and dress, and with his hair gelled to what the red head would consider perfection, he presented himself a little more neatly than his older brother.

"Just about how much of a gluten you are," Mikey answered as Raph walked past him and poured himself a cup of coffee.

"You're _so_ not one to talk." The red head said, grabbing a few pieces of bread and popping some into the toaster. "Load me up a plate Mikey, I'm feeling especially gluttonous today."

Mikey shot Leo a pointed smirk as he did as he was told. "How many do you want?"

"How many do you think I can eat?"

"I bet you can't eat more than 20," Leo said, scooching his chair over as Raph made a spot on the stool next to him.

"You better not eat more than 20! I have to save some for Donnie and April!" Mikey said, pushing the larger stack of pancakes away from Raph and replacing it with his plate.

"You snooze you lose," Raph said, and immediately dumped almost the entire bottle of maple syrup on his mixture of pancakes before diving in. Scarfing and slurping his food so fast, he finished his first plate before his toast was done. He pointed a sticky fork in Leo's face and smiled with a mouth full of food. "Yur sfo skrud."

"I'm so sick is more accurate," Leo said, disgusted as he pushed is half eaten plate away from himself. "What is it about you that just makes me lose my appetite?"

"Sticks an stones mean more fer me dude," Raph replied, pulling Leo's plate toward himself as Mikey refilled his plate and began buttering his toast.

"Whatever moron, I better go wake up sleeping beauty while there's still food on the table," Leo said, getting up and taking his empty tea cup into the sink before walking towards Donnie's bedroom.

"Not if I can help it," Raph burped, taking the piece of toast Mikey was buttering out of his hand and shoving it into his mouth. "Thanks bro."

"Dude, slow down or you're going to choke!" Mikey snorted, half amused, half completely grossed out. And all together impressed. "What's the big hurry anyway? School doesn't start for like, another hour."

Mikey had to wait till Raph had completely downed his coffee before he could get an answer. "Casey texted me this morn'en telling me ta meet him outside his apartment 'cause he had something wicked to show me. Casey's apartment complex is in the completely opposite direction of school though, so I have to haul ass over there if I want to see what's up and still make it to school before the second bell rings."

"Ahhh fun fun. Know what he's going to show you?"

"No idea, must be something pretty cool though, the way he was talking it up. I woke up to like, 30 texts from him."

"Jeeeezzzz," Mikey side smiled, refilling Raph's coffee mug with water instead.

"You're telling me. If it turns out to be something lame, I'm kick'en his ass all the way to Jersey."

"Harsh much?" Mikey winced but Raph only shrugged and chugged the water Mikey handed him.

"I prefer to call it tough love with Casey. You don't send someone 30 goddamn texts, all in caps by the way, at 6 am unless you're dying or about to die."

"Speaking of dying," Mikey interrupted, leaning over to the side to get a better look at his older brother, just now making a less than dramatic entrance. Raph followed his gaze and laughed when Mikey whistled enthusiatically. "Woah Nelly! Who's the bad breathed zombie and what did he do to our resident genius?"

"Cooooffffffeeeeeeeeeeee," Donnie yawned, not even bothering to open his eyes and he hapzardly made his way over to the coffee pot. His hair looked like something out of an old fashioned horror film, standing on end and in every direction imaginable, you'd mistake him for some sort of mad scientist. He was still in his pjs, if you could call them that, his shirt was on inside out and backwards, and he was still wearing his green cargo pants from last night.

"Well, good morning to you too, Sleeping _Nerdy_ ," Raph snickered, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. Leo walked up beside him and crossed his arms, his hair a little more scruffy then when he had left.

"Someone fell asleep in his clothes again and then proceeded to smack me in the face with his pillow when I tried to wake him up," Leo grunted, looking less than pleased as Mikey helped Donnie find a big enough mug for his coffee. Raph just shrugged and punched Leo in the arm playfully.

"If I had to see your face first thing in the morning, I'd want to smack you with a pillow too."

"They having a face like yours would warrant a smack with a mattress, right?" Leo shot back, punching Raph back and then hurrying over to Donnie's side before Raph could retaliate.

Mikey just laughed as Raph snorted, getting up from his stool and stretching. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Leo. I should probably get going. Casey's butt ain't going to kick itself."

"Am I still asleep, or did Raph say he was going to kick Casey's butt?" Donnie rubbed his face with his free hand as Leo filled up his coffee cup.

"I'll fill you in once you eat something, Dee," Mikey answered, smacking Raph's hand away before sliding the rest of the pancakes out of reach. "Nu-uhh, no way man. I'm cutting you off. You've had your fill."

"Awww come on Mikey. Just a few for the rode?" Raph whined, and Mikey just stuck a playful tongue out at him.

"You've had way more than enough, Raphie! I have to save the rest for Donnie and April!"

"But they're _sooooooo_ _goooooooooood_! _Pllllleeeeaaaasssseeee_?" Raph whined even more, trying to grab some from him anyway. Mikey had to use his foot to push him back in order to keep them out of reach.

"Flatery will get you no where, dude. I'm serious. No more!" Mikey laughed at Raph's visible disappointment as he sighed dejectedly.

"Jerk. No way am I going to make it till lunch time without starving. I'm a football player man, I gotta weight in carbs every meal to prepare for tonight's practice."

Mikey set down the plate of pancakes only when Raph had turned to put on his shoes and grab his back pack from his room. A thought occurred to him as he watched Raph grab his skateboard, and he hurriedly stopped him at the door before he could leave.

"Wait, Raph, I got a proposition for you!" Mikey called out just as Raph was about to close the back door. "Tonight I'm making lasagna."

Raph furrowed his brow and he placed a hand over his chest defensively, as if he was in pain. "You stopped me just to rub it in my face that I won't be home in time for lasagna? You're breaking my heart here, kid."

Mikey rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "No dumb dumb. That's not what I meant. I was going to say that since practice runs late tonight 'cause it's the end of the season and you're preparing for the state championships, I was gonna say that I could save you the biggest and most juiciest piece of lasagna."

"I'm sensing a _but_ , here. What's the catch, shorty?" Raph raised a brow.

"I need your help with something right after school. You don't have practice till five, so you have two hours of just free time, right?"

"Those two hours are usually supposed to be spent in study hall. Though, it isn't mandatory." Now it was Raph's turn to fold his arms, but a sense of amusement glistened in his bright green eyes as he leaned forward. "Throw in some thick pieces of garlic bread and you'll have my attention."

Mikey grinned and nodded.

"How do you feel about dumpster diving?"

* * *

 _ **I feel like I'm in one of my fics. It's been raining non-stop here for the past couple of days, and since I didn't have any work, I thought I'd go to my local café and bust this chapter out since it is perfect writing weather. An open seat by a large window, two blond coffee's and one fresh cinnamon bun later, I'm able to upload this!**_

 _ **Thanks for all the sweet messages and for being so patient with me! Ya'll are the best! Since the last chapter was a little bit dramatic, I thought I'd chill things down a bit and just have more of a filler chapter with just some brotherly shenanigans and food. Lots of food. Because from now on, you're gonna wish these children would just sit down and eat. And by children, I mean one very specific Hamato child. I'm sure you all can guess which one.**_

 _ **Things rev up again in the next chapter, so stay tuned! Lots of love darling! Thanks again for sticking with me!**_


	4. Shots in the Dark Part 3

_At least it's not raining_.

Over and over again, Mikey repeatedly chanted that like one of his Sensei's mantras in his head. It was honestly the only thing keeping him sane at this point, as he shifted through dozens of full garbage bags trying to search for any sign of a bright green phone case. As he moved a particularly rank smelling garbage bag, a slimy orange liquid spilled onto his tennis shoes and stained his laces. Mikey took in an internal deep breath, because he was smart enough not to fill his lungs with the smell of week old sour milk and baby diapers, and groaned loudly.

 _At least it's not raining. At least it's not raining._

"I can't believe you convinced Raph to do this," a voice groaned behind him, making Mikey snap out of his thoughts and turn around.

"And I can't believe Raph convinced you to take his place," Mikey grinned.

"He strategically left out the part about us dumpster diving," Donnie scrunched up his nose in disgust as he shifted though a pile of garbage bags on the opposite side of the alleyway. " _I promised Mike I'd help him out after school, but if I don't pass my physics test next week, Coach will kill me. Or worse, he won't let me play in the big game_."

Mikey laughed at Donnie's impression of Raph as he threw a banana peel out of his way. "I wouldn't have asked him to help me if I'd known he was just going to blow me off for a study date with Mona."

"Honestly, if he needed help studying, I would have been more than willing to help tutor him," Donnie grumbled, throwing a scrunched up fast food bag over his shoulder.

"Yeah, but who would you rather have tutoring you? A pretty girl who smells like apricots and laughs at all your jokes, or, no offence, _you_?" Mikey snickered as he dodged the empty coke can Donnie threw at him.

"At least I would have made sure we got work done. Mona's smart, and a really good science tutor, which is why I recommend her to Raph in the first place. But that doesn't really matter when all he does is drool every time she looks his way and make heart eyes at her." Donnie huffed, placing his hands on his hips.

"Coming from the dude that runs into walls every time April walks into a room."

Mikey laughed again as he dodged more gross objects being thrown at him. He remembered when he first met Mona a couple of months back. Raph had pretty much been on the border line of getting a D in his Physics class, and would have been benched from football if he didn't get his grades to at least a C+. Raph had begged on his knees, _literally_ , _and Mikey AND Leo both had the photo and video evidence to prove it_ , for Donnie to help tutor him.

But Donnie was too busy with like a bajillion other things, which Mikey didn't bother listening to the list because he was still laughing so hard, and had offered to get him another tutor. One that was not as smart as him, which Donnie for some reason pointed out, but would be more than qualified with helping Raph pass his class. Raph was not exactly pleased with this idea.

Leo called it pride. Mikey called it being a huge pansy. Raph called it being allergic to nerds and promptly punched both Leo and Mikey in the arm. Whatever you'd call it, Raph threw a tantrum about it for the rest of the week, saying he didn't want some geek trying to talk to Raph like he was just some big dumb football player. However, despite how much of a hissy fit Raph through, he knew his position as head linebacker was on the line if he didn't get the help he needed and finally agreed to have a study session at their house that Saturday.

However, none of them were prepared when the doorbell rang and instead of there being some frail looking dude with taped glasses and a pocket protect, which, _yeah ok_ , Mikey shamefully expected, there was a very pretty girl with a silk pink scarf tied around her neck.

Donnie introduced her as Mona Andrews. A former Science Olympiad partner of Donnie's from an old summer camp they both went to as kids who now went to an all girl prepatory school in Queens. Mikey vaguely remembered Donnie coming back after spending a week at this summer camp and talking his ear off about all the " _cool_ " things he learned and did. Mikey also remembered Donnie explaining this was an indoor camp, which didn't seem very camp like at all, and he vehemently told don that he'd never want to go to a summer camp like that. Donnie assured him that there was no way they'd accept someone like Mikey, but if the camp didn't involve canoeing in a mossy lake, telling scary stories by a fire, and falling asleep in a tent with mosquito bites and finger's sticky from scarfing down smores, then he was just fine with that.

Mona, to sum it up simply, was a ridiculously sweet and friendly girl, and Mikey instantly liked her. She was shorter than Mikey, despite being the same age as Raph, but had great posture and a contagious smile. She had almond shaped brown eyes, dark and focused, a flat nose, and wavy brown hair pulled into a high pony tail. When she talked, she had a soft gravely voice, soothing and a bit nasely, and Mikey could tell that if he made her laugh hard enough, she'd probably let out a loud snort. Which turned out to be true a few hours later when Mikey put his hypothesis to the test.

Yup. Mikey definitely liked her. And he could tell that Leo and Donnie thought she was pretty cool too.

And when she turned and introduced herself again to Raph as his tutor, well, it didn't take a genius to figure that Raph had pretty much taken back everything he said before about not needing a tutor. Mikey was pretty sure he was going to implode right then and there when she shook his hand if Donnie hadn't have led her into the living room and Leo had smacked him in the back of the head.

From then on, Raph was a lost cause. And you could tell, with like, 97% accuracy, if he was going to have a study session just by how sweaty, flustered and agitated he'd become. Mikey made it a point not to pull any pranks on the days Mona was coming over, just because Raph tended to punch harder when he was nervous. And he was _always_ nervous around Mona.

"By the way, how do you know she smells like apricots? I didn't think you two were that close."

"We're not," Mikey said, coming back to the present. "I read it in Raph's diary."

"Oh, Mikey, don't play with my hopes like that. Raph doesn't have a diary." Donnie said quickly, and Mikey gave him a quick wink.

"That's exactly what he wants you to think. I actually think it's more of a journal. Remember when dad gave him that journal to write in whenever he got really angry? As a way to manage his frustration or whatever?"

"Yeah, when he was like, 12."

"Well I don't think he ever stopped. From personal experience and bruises, I don't think it really helped deal with his anger much, but I think he liked it enough to keep doing it over the years. He has a whole stash of them locked up in that safe he keeps under his desk."

"The one where he keeps all his prized comic books in? The one that says, _'Keep out Mikey. I mean it. Touch this and die'_?" Donnie asked and Mikey nodded.

"That's the one! I'm so close to cracking the combination on it, by the by. But, irrelevant. Point is, he keeps the current one he's writing under his mattress. It's mostly filled with chicken scratched song lyrics and cute little doodles of skulls, but recently he's added a bunch of poem-y gunk about Mona. He once filled up an entire page just comparing her beauty to the Mona Lisa painting and I kid you not, it almost cured my addiction to snooping, it was so disgustingly romantic. The moment he starts putting their names together and adding little hearts, we may need to have an intervention with him."

Donnie let out a long, warm laugh and Mikey couldn't help but stop what he was doing and join him. Despite the fact that they were, indeed, standing in dumpsters on a cold November day, Mikey was having a lot of fun.

It wasn't often that Donnie and him spent quality time like this outside of home or school or patrol, and they weren't arguing or blowing something up. It was nice, just having it be the two of them. Mikey always enjoyed having any solo time with one of his brothers, especially now that they were all in high school and busy with other things.

Well, at least all his brothers seemed to be busy with other things.

Mikey was the youngest and only a freshman. He wasn't busy preparing for college like Leo. He didn't have any major things going for him like Raph did with his football and part time gigs with his band. And Donnie always seemed busy with working on his gadgets and taking his online college courses on top of all the other school work he did.

Not that Mikey didn't like not having many responsibilities. He liked the fact that he could lounge around and just hang out with friends at the skate park or Murikami's and not have to worry about jobs or school work or sports. And he really did liked the fact that his brother's were doing so many things that they liked doing and how excited they'd get when something they were doing went well.

But Mikey liked it more when he could hang out with his brothers and only his brothers. Not their responsibilities. That's probably why he liked patrolling the city so much. Prepping for entrance tests or going to practice for sports were things his brother's did on their own. Gearing up and fighting crime was something they did together. As a team. As brothers.

"I'm going to try and call your phone again."

Mikey looked up and watched Donnie wipe his hands on his jeans before reaching into his jacket and pulling out his cellphone.

"We've already tried that D. It's probably dead by now, it only had like, 30% when I dropped it. Either that, or it's broken from the fall." Mikey responded, really hoping he was wrong. Cause Sensei would seriously kill him if that was the case. That, or ground him for the rest of his life. Which ever one came first.

"Still. I'd much rather try then going through all this trash anymore. My shoes are pretty much ruined for life." Donnie answered, pressing the call button. "See if you can hear it."

Being in New York city on a Friday afternoon made a simple ring tone without a doubt nearly impossible to decipher with all the other background noise. But Mikey shrugged and did as he was told, crouching closer to the bottom of the dumpster to try and hear better. They waited like that for a few seconds, until Mikey could hear his voicemail coming from Donnie's phone.

"Dang it. Did you hear anything?" Donnie asked, shoving his phone back into his jacket pocket.

"Nothing on my end. Back to dumpster diving oh brother of mine," Mikey sighed, shifting through more of the trash around him.

"Ugghh, I'd much rather just build you a new phone. Anything to go back home and take a shower and literally not be standing in 3 week old Chinese food." Donnie said, lifting up his feet for closer inspection.

"Lucky. I'll trade ya dumpsters. I think I've been standing in what I hope is chocolate pudding for the past half an hour." Mikey said, lifting his own foot and taking a sniff. "Oh Yuck. Definitely _not_ chocolate pudding."

That got a quick laugh out of Donnie as they went back to work. Mikey let out a yawn before rubbing his face with the arm that wasn't covered in trash.

"Ok, what's gives?" Donnie said almost immediately, and Mikey turned his head towards his older brother.

"What? Step in something truly barf worthy?"

"No you," Donnie replied, leaning over the dumpster edge and pointing a gloved finger at Mikey. "That's the 27th time you've yawned since we've been here."

"You've been keeping track?" Mikey raised his brow, partially impressed.

"Not until you started doing it every five minutes. Not important though. What's up? Didn't get much sleep?"

Mikey had honestly not thought about his dream since breakfast that morning and had completely forgotten it had even happened. A part of him thought that it was because it wasn't important enough to think about. A louder part of him thought that it was because he didn't _want_ to think about it. Mikey ignored that part.

"Ahhh, I didn't get much sleep last night. Woke up too early and couldn't fall back asleep is all." Mikey responded a little to quickly, turning his attention back to clearing the area around him. Big mistake.

"Was it because of what happened last night?"

Mikey didn't even need to look to know that Donnie was staring at him, hard, with those bright brown eyes that were steely and calculating. He may have been able to avoid talking about it with Leo, probably because he was distracted by pancakey goodness, but Donnie was a whole different set of aversion tactics that Mikey needed to use. And with nothing but garbage surrounding him, Donnie didn't have any trouble keeping his full attention of the littlest Hamato. And that was kinda frustrating all on it's own.

Because Donnie never settled for just words. If something was wrong, he needed to have physical proof, something he could see with his own eyes and feel with his own hands, to prove that it wasn't. And that wasn't exactly something just had lying around in his pocket/

 _What am I thinking? Nothing **is** wrong. I don't need to avoid talking about anything. It was only a dream. Nothing more, nothing less. _

For some reason, Mikey was having real trouble convincing himself of that.

 _So why does it feel like it was anything but._

"No. It wasn't. That doesn't bug me."

Which was true. Honestly. Mikey turned his head towards the opposite end of the street. There had been a few cop cars there earlier this morning, but the police tape had all been taken down and the street deserted. With no one being severely hurt and the thugs arrested, it was nothing more than a typical hold up. It was reduced back into an ordinary alley by the end of the day. Nothing remaining to tell that it once was the almost death site of a Michelangelo Hamato. Just an ordinary alley way.

The whole incident really didn't bother Mikey. He had been in situations like that before, where is life was on the line because of gangsters or the foot. It wasn't his first rodeo with getting things thrown or shot at him.

But there was something about this time. This one time. Maybe it was because he was alone when it happened. Maybe it was because it was a freaking gun pointed right at his face. That would scare anyone. That would give anyone nightmares. There wasn't anything unusual about that considering what happened.

So why did this feel different? This was more than just being scared. This was more than just shock.

This was something way out of Mikey's league of understanding. Something Mikey didn't know how to explain because he had never felt this way before.

And yet.

Why did it feel-

Familiar?

"Mikey?"

Mikey snapped back, his thoughts vanishing like cotton candy in water as he grabbed the edge of the dumpster, nearly falling backwards into the trash. "Sorry, sorry. Just thinking. I'm fine. I promise. I had this weird dream last night, and I was trying to remember it."

Donnie cocked his head, those eyes narrowing again. The gears in his brain probably working about a million miles per second. "Wanna talk about it? Your dream?"

Mikey shook his head. "No, no. I mean, I don't think I could even if I wanted to. I can't remember any of it. I think there was a talking burrito, but I can't remember what he said. Or was it a she? They? It?"

Donnie rolled his eyes, obviously deciding to opt out of this conversation before it got too _Mikey_ , but there was still a bit of concern in his eyes. That older brother concern that never really went away, no matter how much Mikey would sometimes wish it did. "Well ok. But if you still can't sleep tonight, come find me alri-."

Donnie paused and immediately began digging up trash, disappearing behind the edge of the dumpster.

"Dee?" Mikey called out, straining his neck to see what his older brother was doing. Bits of paper and empty food cartons were being thrown over the side haphazardly when finally, Donnie let out a muffled ' _AHA_!', shooting his arm up to catch Mikey's attention.

In his hand, was a bright green phone case.

"My cell phone! Donnie you brilliant, perfect human being!" Mikey practically leaped over the edge of the dumpster and ran towards his phone, grabbing it from Donnie's hand and hugging it fiercely to his chest. "Oh my precious little time waster, I thought I'd never see you again!"

Mikey practically cried as Donnie chuckled at him, climbing out of his own dumpster. "You're welcome."

"ThankyouthankyouTHANKYOU!" Mikey cried again, and was about to kiss his phone before Donnie swiped it back from him.

"Woah ho ho, don't even think about it. The last thing we need is you getting sick. Who knows what kind of germs is on this thing." Donnie said, wiping the black screen with the sleeve of his jacket.

"The kind of germs we've been standing in for nearly an hour," Mikey reminded him, raising a crooked brow as he smiled.

Donnie shivered, looking down at himself with disgust. "Ugghhh point taken. Lets get out of here please. Preferably in the direction of home. End destination, the shower."

"First one to the bus stop gets to use the bathroom first!" Mikey yelled, running towards the street and turning towards the direction they came from.

"Micky-ack! No fair! Wait up!" Mikey heard Donnie yell after him as he ran down the street. He laughed as he reached the end of the sidewalk and turned again, the bus stop within sight at the end of the block.

Mikey tried not to bump into people, considering that he smelled like he hadn't showered in a month from swimming in more garbage than Oscar the Grouch, but it was five o'clock foot traffic. Which meant that the streets were usually filled with people on their way home or to dinner.

But Mikey was a ninja, and ninja were stealthy, so evading past peoples backpacks and elbows was all but too easy. Practically second nature thanks to all the dojo practice and growing up with 3 older brothers. Avoiding swats to the heads and light punches to the arms was nothing new for the youngest Hamato. Just a few more feet and he'd reach the bus stop before Donnie. And that bathroom privilege would be all his, so says the sibling rule of _'getting there first'_.

 _I'm sorry, Michelangelo._

Long blond hair passed his peripheral vision and Mikey stopped dead in his tracks.

There it was again. That voice. That ache in his chest. That familiarity. Mikey's breath became rigid and harsh, blood pumping in his ears and his heart racing, beating fast as a revolutionary drum.

He turned on his heel, to see who had passed him, but the person with the long blond hair was gone. He stood their, scanning the area around him, straining to see above heads and hats. Whoever it was was lost in the crowd. Out of Mikey's sight.

He grabbed the folds of his shirt, right above his charging heart. He knew this adrenaline rush. This sense of urgency and focus.

He was scared. Panic was coursing through him, making his hands tremble and his brow sweat.

He was scared. Oh God was he scared.

And he had no idea why.

"There you are."

Mikey jumped hard at the sudden hand on his shoulder only to realize two seconds too late that it belonged to a familiar person. Donnie pulled himself into Mikey's view, that concerned look back in those concentrated eyes.

"Woah, Mikey, easy. What's wrong? Are you ok?" Donnie said again, placing a palm on Mikey's cheek. "You're as white as a ghost. Did something happen?"

Mikey blinked once. Twice. Three times, before shaking his head of Donnie's hand. "No, I'm ok, I thought I-," he paused, looking over Donnie's shoulder at the street once more. Like before, the street was empty of the blond haired person.

"I-uh-dropped something. But I guess I didn't. No worries." Mikey said, using all his nerves to calm his racing heart and give Donnie one of his award winning smiles. "I really need to invest in some zipper pockets. Or maybe start wearing a fanny pack."

Donnie didn't seem convinced, when did he ever, but Mikey pulled him along by the arm towards the bus stop, where a city bus had just pulled up, before he had a chance to challenge him. "Those are coming back in style, right?"

"Fanny packs were never in style to begin with." Donnie answered halfheartedly back as they flashed their bus passes and boarded the bus.

"Challenge accepted. I'll make them in style," Mikey said quickly, finding an open spot by the window and dragging Donnie down in the seat next to him. As the bus pulled out back into the heavy traffic, Donnie brought out Mikey's phone and began tinkering with it.

"I don't think it's broken, but I'll need to plug it into a charger to make sure. Also, I found it in a puddle of -something-, so it may have some slight damage, nothing a few adjusted chips can't fix-," Donnie began droning on and Mikey found himself looking out and leaning against the window. The grey sky above was starting to turn dark, and Mikey watched as street lights they passed began to turn on, making his reflection on the glass more visible.

 _What happened back there?_

He rested his hand back on his chest again, his heart beat had for the most part, sped back down to a regular rhythm. He knew for a fact that he felt scared. A familiar panic closing in on him. Just like he felt in the alley way the night before. Like he felt when the gun had been pulled on him.

Mikey scrunched up his face, his reflection in the glass mimicking him in a frowned response. There was no gun. There was no thugs. There was nothing around him that should have made him _that_ scarred.

 _No_.

It was that voice. The same voice that he heard last night. A voice that he was now positive he heard in his dream last night too. Saying the same exact thing.

I'm sorry Michelangelo.

He couldn't replicate it. He said it over and over again in his head, but the tone wasn't the same. The voice wasn't the same.

 _Her_ voice.

A million questions swarmed in his head. None of them had answers. Who was this woman? Why was he remembering this now? Why did it make him so afraid? Why was she apologizing?

Why couldn't he remember?

"-not familiar with the software, however. But that's what the internet is for, right? I'll figure out. Mikey? Mikey, are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah," Mikey answered absentmindedly, his eyes never straying from the window.

"I'll figure it out."

* * *

 _ **Back at it again with a late update. I know, you don't have to tell me, but like I said guys, I'm following through with this story. I'm not giving up on it or you guys! So stay tuned and thanks for baring with me! Reviews and comments are more than welcome! Tell me what you guys think! Lots of love!**_

I uploaded this at 5:30 am, I stayed up all night to write it. So if there are any spelling or grammar errors, I'll fix them later! Thanks again!


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